BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 125 



Highlands of Scotland ; also in suitable parts of 

 Ireland. 



Materials. Small sticks, sprigs of heather, and 

 coarse grass ; in sparing quantities where the nest 

 is placed in a dry situation ; but when a low, damp 

 place is chosen, sticks, reeds, sedge, and flags are 

 said by some observers to be used in liberal 

 quantities. 



Eggs. Four to five, occasionally six. White, 

 faintly tinged with blue or bluish-green ; on rare 

 occasions slightly marked with light rusty-red or 

 yellowish-brown. They vary in size, and closely 

 resemble those of the Marsh and Montagu Harriers. 

 Size about 1'75 by 1*45 in. 



Time. May and June. 



Bernards. Formerly resident, now probably only 

 migratory. It arrives in April or May, and departs 

 in September and October. Notes : tremulous and 

 Kestrel-like. Local and other names : male, Dove 

 Hawk, Blue Hawk, or Miller ; female, Eingtail ; 

 and in the Hebrides a Gaelic name signifying 

 Mouse Hawk. The sexual difference in plumage 

 was the cause of the birds being believed at one 

 time to represent different speces. Not a close 

 sitter. 



HARRIER, MARSH. 



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 



