IN THE NORWICH MUSEUM. 47 
force or courage; and their habit is to skim over the 
open country at no great elevation, occasionally sweep- 
ing down to seize their prey, which consists of small 
birds, or the eggs or young of larger species, and of 
small rodent quadrupeds, and the smaller reptiles. 
In most species of Harriers, the male bird when 
fully adult, has the plumage more or less tinted with 
grey, the female of most of the known species being 
brown. It is also remarkable that in those species 
in which the color of the eye is known, the iris is pale 
yellow in the adult males, but almost always brown, 
or brownish yellow in the females. The Harriers 
possess a facial disk of small feathers surrounding 
the cheek, which gives them a peculiar appearance, 
differing in this respect from that of other diurnal 
birds of prey, and somewhat resembling the Owls. 
In the arrangement adopted in the Norwich Mu- 
seum, the Harriers are all comprised in one genus, 
which bears the name of C7rcus, and the collection 
there preserved contains one specimen which is at 
present entirely unique, viz., the only known example 
of Circus macrosceles of Madagascar, presented to the 
Museum by its discoverer, Mr. Edward Newton. 
‘This specimen has not yet been figured, as it is 
thought not to be fully adult, but the circumstances 
under which it was obtained are thus recorded by Mr. 
Newton in the “ Ibis’’ for 1863. 
“On the 22nd of September, 1862, we were quietly paddling 
through a clump of tall bulrushes, where we had marked down a 
