HEN-HARRIERS 143 



occasionally it is repeated several times, with an 

 appreciable interval between each utterance. It 

 suggests a compromise between the " mew " of a 

 Buzzard and the ordinary wail of the Herring- 

 Gull. Rarely you will hear this cry run into the 

 usual chatter, the former, however, always being 

 delivered first. 



Unless found by accident, few nests, especially 

 when incubation has commenced, are harder to 

 discover than the Hen-Harrier's, since the female 

 who is alone responsible for hatching is usually 

 a very close sitter, while the male is constantly far 

 away from his home. One method of circum- 

 venting the wily bird is to repair, armed with 

 trusty glasses, to some tall clump of heather, half 

 way up a hill which commands the whole of a 

 valley which you know harbours a Harrier's eyrie. 

 You may have to abide in cramped patience and 

 posture for well nigh an entire day without so 

 much as a glimpse of the male. Then at last he 

 appears, and, if he makes a quarry, he may reveal 

 the secret by visiting and feeding the sitting hen. 

 Either he will straightway settle down beside her 

 for half a minute, or else and this is very pretty 

 rising above the nest to some height he will drop 

 his victim, which the female, leaping up to meet, 

 adroitly catches ere ever it reaches ground. Now, 

 if you have marked the precise spot (not so easy 

 as it sounds, seeing that objects first seen through 

 glasses at, say, half a mile, appear totally different 



