48 RAPTORIAL BIRDS 
small flock of the litt'e white-breasted Duck (Vettapus auritus), 
when I saw a Harrier hover for an instant just above the rushes, 
and plunge down into them; immediately there was an outcry 
from some water fowl, probably a Porphyrie, one species of 
which I had before killed in this same clump of rushes. We 
pushed-on to the spot with some difficulty, as the canoe’s head 
was in another direction, and it was no easy matter turning it 
among the rushes. The Marmites would not keep quiet, but 
were cons‘antly talking, and as we were not nearly within shot, 
I was in considerable excitement for fear the Harrier should fly 
away before we got up. _ However, when we were about thirty- 
five yards off, he rose, and [I killed him; on picking him up, I 
found be had been robbing some water-fowl’s nest, his mouth and 
crop containing three young birds, evidently taken from the egg- 
shell, with fragments of the latter coloured pinkish white, with 
red spots like that of a Water Rail or Porphyrio.” 
Two other rare Harriers in the collection of the 
Norwich Museum are the originals of published figures, 
viz., a female of Circus matllardi, obtained im. the 
Island of Reumon, and presented to the Museum by 
Mr. and Mrs. F. Bedingfeld, which was figured in the 
“This” for 1863, and a pair of the Czrcus wolf of 
New Caledonia, which were figured in the proceedings 
of the Zoological Society for 1865, and from which 
this species was first described. 
Three species of Harrier are natives of the British 
Islands, and though far less common than was the 
case when fire-arms were less abundant, and when 
marshes were more extensive, are still not unfrequently 
obtained in many parts of Great Britain. These 
are Circus cyaneus, the Hen Harmer; C. czneraceus, 
