132 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



in a marsh near Lixus in Marocco at the end of April, and he 

 could see with his telescope the hen-birds "sitting dotted 

 about the marsh." Montagu's Harrier hunts for its food in 

 the usual manner of these birds, and is also, like all Harriers, 

 very destructive to the eggs of other birds, of which it eats a 

 great number. Mr. Howard Saunders relates that he took two 

 unbroken eggs of the Crested Lark from the crop of a male of 

 one of these Harriers, with the crushed remains of others, but 

 with the exception of this evil propensity, the bird devours 

 large numbers of small rodents, frogs, snakes, and lizards, as 

 well as locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects. Small birds 

 also fall victims to its rapacity, but the Harrier does not pursue 

 them in full flight, but pounces on them on the nest or on the 

 ground. 



Mr. Seebohm writes : " Its long and pointed wings give an 

 especial gracefulness to its flight. Now it darts rapidly with 

 half-closed wings, now it makes a sudden turn with one wing 

 elevated, and now it sails over the surface of the ground with 

 motionless outspread wings ; but, with all its apparent power 

 of flight, it seldom, if ever, pursues small birds if they attempt 

 to escape." Montagu's Harrier has also the habit of sailing 

 in wide circles, like many other Birds of Prey. Mr. Howard 

 Saunders describes the female, which he put off the nest in 

 the Isle of Wight, as " flying away in repeated and ever widen- 

 ing circles. The same feature was remarked on the return to 

 the nest : the wide circles gradually narrowed, and the wings 

 were suddenly closed as the bird swept over the nest and 

 dropped upon it." The last-named observer also states that 

 the young birds sometimes circle and hover with outspread 

 wings and tail, like Kestrels, though less steadily, and the white 

 colour of the tail-coverts distinguishes the species at a glance. 



Nest. A very slight one, generally a mere hollow in the 

 ground, lined with dry grass. In the fens, however, Mr. 

 Saunders says that it is substantially built of sedge. A nest 

 found by Mr. Seebohm in Germany in a field of rye is thus 

 described by him : " There was no hole whatever in the 

 ground : the rye had only been trampled down, and a slight 

 but somewhat neat nest made of corn-stalks, and lined with 

 a little dry straw. The nest was rather more than nine inches 



