96 THE HARRIERS 



5. Food. Fen and water birds, small mammals, snakes, frogs, insects ; 

 and the eggs and young of other birds whenever they are to be had ; the latter 

 form part of the food of the young (see p. 103). [w. P. P.] 



HEN-HARRIER [Circus cydneus (Linnaeus). Blue-hawk, ring-tail ; furze- 

 kite (Devon) ; kattabelly (Orkneys). French, busard St. Martin ; German, 

 Kornweihe ; Italian, albanella reale], 



1. Description. The hen-harrier may always be distinguished by the 

 fact that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th primaries have emarginated outer webs, but 

 the emargination of the 2nd primary is concealed by its covert. Further, the 5th 

 primary is equal in length to the 2nd. The sexes differ conspicuously in size, and 

 there is no seasonal change of coloration. The male has the upper parts of a pale 

 slate-grey, the rump white ; the fore-neck bluish grey ; the rest of the under parts 

 white. Cere, iris, and legs pale yellow. (PI. 145.) Length 19 in. [482-0 mm.]. The 

 female has the upper parts dark brown, with white mottlings in the nape, in the 

 periphery of the disc, a white rump tinged with rufous, and five dark bars across 

 the tail. The under parts are huffish, more or less heavily striated with dark 

 brown, including the elongated shank feathers. Cere and legs yellow, iris brown. 

 Length 21 in. [533'0 mm.]. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the female, 

 but the upper parts are browner ; the breast is buffish white with narrow striations 

 of dark brown. The colours of the top parts as in the female. Young in down 

 white, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles, although formerly much more 

 widely distributed, the hen-harrier is now chiefly confined to the Orkneys and 

 the Outer Hebrides. A few pairs also probably still breed in the wilder mountain 

 districts of Ireland, and in 1882 Mr. R. J. Ussher found a nest in co. Waterford. 

 It was also found nesting in Carnarvon in 1902, and has probably bred recently 

 in Merioneth. In Cornwall it bred from 1903 to 1905 and may possibly still nest on 

 Exmoor. It has ceased to breed in Dorset, but nested in Hants as recently as 1893, 

 and was formerly common in the fens of East Anglia, though now extinct there. 

 On the mainland of Scotland it is almost, if not quite, extinct as a breeding species. 

 Outside the British Isles it is found in suitable localities throughout Europe 

 south to Northern Spain, Central Italy and South Russia, while northward it 

 ranges up to lat. 69 in Lapland. In Asia its northern limit is 68-69 in W. Siberia 

 and 69 4' in East Siberia, and it is not found south of Tibet during the breeding 

 season. In the British Isles it is a resident, but on the Continent in winter it ranges 



