152 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



to the vicinity of the crofts, to pick up what they 

 may : while sometimes, even in spring and summer, 

 one will steal down from the uplands and snatch 

 a young chicken just outside a crofter's cot, and 

 since I gather that, in bygone days when the bird 

 was commoner, this petty larceny was a favourite 

 practice, perhaps the bird's at present rather 

 ambigous name of hen harrier is explained. 



The prevalent idea amongst most ornitholo- 

 gists is that the Hen-Harrier does not lay until 

 the end of May or in June. This is nonsense. 

 The first egg is sometimes deposited late in April (a 

 full clutch in that month is on record), frequently 

 early in May : in fact, most Hen-Harriers have 

 complete " sets " between May llth and 24th. 

 Nests later than this are usually second attempts, 

 while fresh eggs found late in June or early in 

 July must surely be third ventures ! In any event, 

 however, only one brood is reared in the season. 

 No time is lost between a first nest (taken or 

 destroyed ; since sometimes a clutch is trodden 

 on by sheep or cattle) and a second. I have known 

 five eggs taken on May llth, and a second nest 

 constructed and four more laid by May 22nd ; 

 but, of course, a nest, and especially a second one, 

 is rigged up in three or four days. The same 

 nest is never, I believe, used twice, though the 

 approximate site is patronized yearly. 



During winter a pair frequently patronize a 

 special roosting-site in very long ling, which, 



