BIRDS OF PREY 159 



called a harrier I do not know, for he does not 

 persecute the objects he feeds on more than the other 

 Raptores. The name has been given them, however, 

 and it sticks to them. I know the marsh and the 

 hen harriers best. Never were two birds more unlike 

 than are the male and female hen-harrier. The male 

 has a grey and white plumage, which makes him, 

 when in the act of flying, look very like a gull, and 

 his flapping kind of flight increases the likeness. He 

 can move as quickly as a dart when he thinks fit to 

 do so. The female has a brown-coloured plumage of 

 different shades, and her tail is barred sometimes- 

 They hunt in couples, pointer fashion, and at other 

 times singly. A grouse would very surely come to 

 grief if either male or female caught sight of him 

 By the word grouse I mean black game, male or 

 female. At one time I should have doubted that fact, 

 but the longer folks live the more they will see if 

 they keep their eyes open. One evening, tramping 

 over a moor, I rose a hen-harrier from a grey hen 

 that he had just finished picking. It was the female 

 of the blackcock. The ranger shot him the same 

 evening, and to my disgust nailed him up in such a 

 manner that he was ruined as a specimen. He had 

 not been hurt by the shot in a way to disfigure him 

 at all, but there he was, on the shed, spread-eagled, 



