2O THE KITES, BUZZARDS AND HARRIERS. 



fear it, but they will not risk being surprised among 

 the grass. I am afraid that with the ordinary Bombay 

 sportsman the Marsh Harrier generally passes for a 

 Kite ; but it is a smaller and altogether flimsier bird, 

 and is also distinctly darker in colour. Besides, the 

 top of its head is usually white. Young birds, how- 

 ever, want this mark : they are dark-brown all over. 

 In old age, again, the Marsh Harrier assumes a very 

 handsome dress, in which nobody would recognise it 

 for the same bird without an introduction. The 

 shoulders, part of the wings, and the tail, are then of 

 a fine, silvery, grey colour, and the rest is dark-brown, 

 except the head, throat and breast, which are light- 

 reddish. Birds in this plumage are rare, but once in 

 a year or so I meet one. I well remember how the 

 first puzzled me. Like its cousins, the Marsh Harrier 

 is a winter visitant to this country, and in times now 

 almost ancient, when the Flats were inundated every 

 monsoon and did not dry for months after, it was very 

 fond of Bombay. Things are changing sadly, but 

 from Mahaluxmee station northwards and westwards 

 there is still ground on which it can find a living. 



