HEN-HARBIERS 153 



though eminently appropriate for sleeping purposes, 

 seldom commends itself to the birds as a suitable 

 nursery. 



Were the Hen-Harrier not so easily destroyed at 

 the nest, it would be a hard fowl to entrap. That 

 is why it has become so rare (though in one not 

 very large area in 1907 I met with eleven pairs), 

 and unless steps are taken to preserve the few left 

 in their chosen haunts, it needs no long time before 

 we shall look in vain, even on the wildest northern 

 moors, for the buoyant flight and graceful form of 

 the Hen-Harrier.* 



* As this book goes to press I read, regretfully, a well-known 

 ornithologist's statement that last year there was only one pair of 

 Hen-Harriers left to the mainland of Orkney. 



