89 



in this county, to my knowledge, as above alluded to, 

 occurred at Horsey in the summer of 1861, when I was 

 informed by Mr. Teasdel, of Yarmouth, that he received 

 two fresh eggs from that neighbourhood, and an old bird, 

 I believe a female, came at the same time into the hands 

 of a Yarmouth game-dealer. Occasionally, but still very 

 rarely, I have found the adult male of this species to 

 exhibit slight dashes of red on the lower parts of the body 

 and under tail coverts, resembling the markings of the 

 old male in C. cineraceus. Mr. Gurney has one of these 

 varieties at Catton, in a case with other Norfolk speci- 

 mens, which are pure grey and white. 



CIRCUS CINERACEUS (Montagu). 

 .MONTAGU'S HAKRIER. 



This species, now fully distinguished in all stages of 

 plumage from that last described, is certainly less rare 

 than is generally supposed, and whilst the hen harrier 

 has ceased almost entirely to nest even in the eastern 

 portion of the county, the ash-coloured harrier, as this 

 bird is also termed, has been known to breed with us in 

 several instances of late years, though not regularly 

 enough to be still looked upon as a resident species. 

 As before remarked also, prior to the entire drainage of 

 the south-western fens, this harrier was not only the 

 most plentiful in that locality, but was the last to quit 

 altogether those once favourite haunts. Probably the 

 last eggs of this species, known to have been laid in 

 that district, were taken from a nest in Feltwell fen 

 on the 9th of June, 1854, the particulars of which 

 are recorded by Mr. Alfred Newton in his " Ootheca 

 Wolleyana," p. 149, with many other interesting notes 

 relating to the ornithology of this and adjoining counties. 

 In July, 1858, a nest, which proved to be of this 



