210 BIRDS. 



female is the larger bird. The enmity of keepers bids fail- 

 to remove the greater number from the British list. They 

 all have the distinguishing "cere," a membrane over the 

 nostrils and upper mandible. Eleven residents (mostly 

 rare) ; five regular, eleven irregular, visitors.] 



Griffon Vulture. One only has occurred in Ireland. 



Egyptian Vulture has been obtained twice only in 

 Essex and Somerset. 



Though to all intents and purposes an indigenous bird, 

 the Marsh-harrier is so rare nowadays as to call for pass- 

 Marsh- ing mention only. It is thought that a few 

 harrier, breed in undisturbed parts of Norfolk, but 

 this seems to require confirmation. It still straggles to 

 Scotland, but is no longer to be found breeding freely in 

 Ireland, as it did comparatively recently, though it may 

 still do so in one or two counties. According to Mr 

 Saunders, it uses the nest of the coot. 



Distinguished by its grey -and -white plumage, and now 

 known to breed only in comparatively few districts in 

 Hen- Great Britain (chiefly in the Scottish isles and 

 harrier. Highlands) and Ireland, the Hen-harrier is 

 the enemy of the game -preserver rather than the farmer, 

 its food consisting of small mammals and birds, for which 

 it quarters the open moors like its congeners. The nest, 

 placed among the heather, is on or near the ground, and 

 is composed of twigs and grass. Eggs, 4 to 6, i ^ inch ; 

 bluish white, rarely spotted. Like most British birds of 

 prey, the bird lays early in May. 



Also far less common than formerly, Montagu's Harrier 

 is still known to breed sparingly in the Channel counties, 

 * Montagu's still more rarely as far north as Yorkshire. 

 Harrier. po Scotland, save in the extreme south, it is 

 a very rare straggler, as also to Ireland. It is far less 

 destructive than most birds of prey, for its food consists 



