144 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



when viewed by the naked eye), you may walk 

 straight up to the nest. All the same, you will 

 be remarkably lucky if at first asking you hit the 

 exact spot and light on the home of the Hen- 

 Harrier. The female, remember, often broods 

 very closely indeed ; until disturbed several times, 

 she often waits to be literally stumbled across before 

 rising, though, of course, there is always the chance 

 that a few tufts of white, fluffy down, clinging to 

 the barbed stems of the heather and rushes, and so 

 arresting the eye, may betray the position of the 

 eyrie. 



Another way to find the nest, only there should 

 be three of you at least in the game, is to beat 

 out the heather and rushes in sections, that is, 

 without any previous watching ; but, concerning 

 this method, there is an immense element of 

 chance, unless, of course, you know the site of 

 last year's nest. 



Again, you may watch the female, who has 

 been of! duty for a while, return to her charge, 

 though this she will not do so long as you are at 

 all near to it : or, possibly, you may catch her 

 building, as I did once. The following description 

 comes straight from my diary of May 23rd, 1907 : 

 " Reaching a certain hill in full view of the sea, I 

 soon saw, down on my left front, a pair of Hen- 

 Harriers mobbed by Curlews. I sank down in the 

 long heather at once, and soon the blue male, after 

 his wife had rushed at him playfully once or twice, 



