HEN HARRIER. 



Circus cyaneus (L.). 



Bird of passage, of rare occurrence. Formerly bred in the county. 



Probably the earliest record for this bird in Yorkshire 

 is in the year 1823, when the late John Hancock took the 

 eggs, four in number, on the Wemmergill Moors.* (" Birds 

 of Northd. and Dm." p. 19.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : 



Circus cyaneus. Hen Harrier Not uncommon in the low grounds 

 and carrs near Doncaster ; now seldom met with in the East Riding. 

 Rare near Sheffield and Leeds ; still breeds, as I am informed by my 

 friends J. and W. Tuke, on Hambleton, and in the neighbourhood of 

 Pickering, and is not infrequently seen scouring the hedgerows in the 

 vicinity of Huddersfield. 



This species is now only an occasional visitor to our 

 extensive moors and unenclosed lands ; it will be observed 

 that the majority of occurrences have been in autumn or 

 winter, when the birds are migrating southward from their 

 breeding haunts in Scotland or northern Europe, though it 

 has been noted on rare occasions on the return passage in 

 spring. 



The Hen Harrier formerly bred annually on the extensive 

 and wide spreading tracts of suitable country to be found 

 in the North and West Ridings, yet it is to be regretted that 

 the ornithological records of our county relating to that period 

 are exceedingly meagre and scarce, the following being all 

 the information I have been able to obtain on the nidification 

 of the species. 



As to its formerly nesting in north Yorkshire, see above. 

 In the East Riding J. H. Anderson of Kilham, writing in 1833, 

 in Rennie's " Field Naturalist " (January 1834), stated : 

 " The Hen Harrier breeds among our furze brakes, and a few 

 years ago I shot the cock bird on a nest, and found six eggs 

 under him ; I have also had young ones more than once." 



P. Hawkridge of Scarborough, writing in Neville Wood's 



* Wemmergill Moors are in Yorkshire. 



