MARSH HARRIER 41 



eggs are seldom laid before May. The bird is partially 

 sociable, as Colonel Irby mentions that in Gibraltar he has 

 seen as many as twenty nests within three hundred yards 

 of each other. 



The eggs are from three to five in number, slightly tapered 

 at one end, and in general perfectly white, or white with a 

 slight tinge of blue : some are very faintly and slightly blotted 

 with pale green, and others with pale brown. Bewick says 

 that they are irregularly spotted with dusky brown ; and 

 Macgillivray describes some he had seen which had a few 

 faint light brown marks. 



VOL I. 



