ASH-COLOURED HARRIER. 37 
21. MARSH HARRIER—(Cireus rufus). 
Moor Buzzard, Bald Buzzard, Marsh Hawk, Harpy, White- 
headed Harpy, Puttock, Duck-Hawk.—One would hardly expect 
to find that a bird, with such a string of aliases to its name, 
could enjoy a very wholesome reputation. However, he’s no 
worse than his fellows of the Hawk family, and not so bad as 
some of them. Probably the name of Harrier, given to this and 
one or two of the Hawks next named, is derived from their 
method of beating or quartering the ground, when in search 
of prey, putting one in mind of the evolutions of the hound 
similarly engaged. The Marsh Harrier or Moor Buzzard (or 
Bald Buzzard, as I used to hear it called in Essex) builds its nest 
of flags or rushes—sometimes sticks or twigs—on the ground, 
amid the grass at the bottom of a furze or other bush; occa- 
sionally low in the bush itself; and again, in a tuft of reeds or 
rushes sufficient to serve the purposes of concealment. In it 
it deposits three or four eggs, white, or with only a tinge of 
milk blue about them. It feeds itself and its young with 
young water-birds, if it can meet with them—and its name 
suggests the idea that young water-birds may be met with 
where itself is found—or young rabbits or birds; a few mice and 
small rats doubtless not coming in as altogether unworthy of 
notice to such hungry customers as four young “ Harpies.” 
22. HEN-HARRIER—(Circus cyaneus). 
T don’t give a list of country or’ local names here, as usual, 
because I wish to draw my reader’s attention to the fact, that 
the different names applied to the same species of Hawk, are, in 
several cases, partly attributable to the differences in size, and 
especially in plumage, dependant on sex and age in the cases in 
question. This is quite the case with the Harriers generally, 
and particularly with the bird now under notice. There is a 
