134 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



fully adult females of the Marsh-Harrier resembled the male 

 in plumage, nor am I yet convinced that both in this species 

 and Montagu's Harrier, the full plumage of the female birds is 

 not a counterpart of that of the males. I am bound to con- 

 fess, however, that recent observers have not confirmed my 

 opinion. Mr. Howard Saunders and Colonel Irby, both of 

 whom have seen numbers of this Harrier in life, describe the 

 female as brown above, chocolate-brown below, with a creamy- 

 white margin to the carpal bend of the wings, and the head 

 buff or creamy-white, streaked with blackish-brown. The tail 

 is entirely brown. 



Young Birds. At first the plumage of the young bird is en- 

 tirely chocolate-brown, including the head. The latter gradu- 

 ally becomes creamy-white like that of the old female, which 

 the bird then closely resembles. The iris is blackish. 



Characters. Apart from its much larger size, the Marsh- 

 Harrier is further distinguished from the other two British 

 species by its rufous thighs, which sometimes have whitish 

 spots or margins to the feathers. The tail in the adult male 

 and female is uniform grey, and this last character will dis- 

 tinguish the melanistic birds also, though these have darker 

 coloured thighs, in fact almost blackish in tint. Young birds, 

 apart from their large size, may unfailingly be distinguished by 

 having the outer web of the fifth primary notched, the chest 

 perfectly uniform, with no streaks, the chin and centre of the 

 breast creamy-buff, and the inner webs of the primaries uni- 

 form. 



Range in Great Britain. The Marsh-Harrier may now be 

 considered only an occasional visitor to the British Islands, 

 though it was formerly a regular breeder in the fen districts of 

 England, and its nest has been recorded from many counties. 

 Occasional captures in Scotland are recorded, but the evidence 

 as to its nesting is not satisfactory. In Ireland, however, it 

 still nests, and Mr. Ussher says that it " breeds sparingly in 

 Queen's County and Galway, and, probably, also in King's 

 County and Westmeath, but it seems to have been exter- 

 minated in Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone, Down, Monaghan, 

 Fermanagh, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Cork, and Mayo, and has 

 now become very rare." 



