176 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



Mouse Hawk. The sexual difference in plumage 

 was the cause of the birds being believed at one 

 time to represent different species. Not a close 

 sitter. 



HARRIER, MARSH. 



( Circus cerugtnosus.) 

 Order ACCIPITRES ; Family FALCONID.E (FALCONS). 



Description of Parent Birds. Length about 

 twenty-one inches. Beak short, curved, and bluish- 

 black. Bare skin round the base of the beak, and 

 irides yellow. Crown, sides of head, and nape pale 

 rusty yellowish-white, streaked with darkish-brown. 

 Back dark brown tinged with red, the feathers being 

 bordered with a lighter shade. Wing-coverts and 

 tertials varying, according to age, from dark red- 

 dish-brown to ash - grey ; secondaries ash - grey - 

 primaries varying from brownish-black to slate- 

 grey. Tail ash-grey. Chin and throat almost white ; 

 breast and under-parts reddish-brown, streaked with 

 dark brown. Legs and toes yellow ; claws black. 



The female is larger, and slightly duller in her 

 plumage. Both are subject to variation in colour, 

 according to age. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground, amongst 

 sedges, reeds, ferns, and under furze and other 

 small bushes ; rarely in trees. On low, marshy, 

 reed- and water-covered land ; also unfrequented 

 moors. Professor Newton, in the latest edition of 

 Yarrell, issued 1874, says that ' :< the bird breeds 

 regularly in Devonshire, Norfolk, and Aberdeen- 

 shire " ; and Mr. Dixon, in his " Nests and Eggs of 

 British Birds," issued just twenty years after, says 

 that Norfolk is the only county in Great Britain in 



