NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 57 



in peace, Reptiles, grasshoppers and other insects form the principal 

 food, but small mammals, birds, and the eggs of grass-nesting species 

 are also eaten. The nest, a slight depression in the ground, sparsely 

 lined with dry grass or heather, is usually situated on the open moor or 

 among dead grass aud rushes. From four to six bluish-white eggs are 

 laid about the end of May. The male bird exhibited in the Case had 

 not assumed the slate-grey plumage characteristic of the fully adult 

 bird. 



Dorsetshire, ,May. 

 Presented by C. E. Radclyffe, Esq. 



No. 152. HEN-HARRIER. (Circus cyaneus.) 



This species was formerly a regular summer visitor to the British 

 Islands and nested on the higher ground in many parts of England and 

 Wales, but is now almost extirpated as a breeding-species. Even on the 

 undisturbed moors of Scotland and Ireland its numbers have greatly 

 decreased during recent years. Like other Harriers it feeds on small 

 mammals, birds and reptiles, and places its nest, made of small sticks, 

 roots, and coarse grass, on the ground. In the present instance the 

 birds selected a depression in the soil where two sheep-walks intersected 

 one another at right angles. The eggs, from four to six in number, 

 are bluish-white, sometimes spotted with rusty brown. 



The adult birds differ greatly in colour, the male being grey while the 

 female is brown, with various markings. 



Sutherlandshire, May. 



Presented by Colonel L. H. Irby §• Captain S. G. Reid. 



No. 153. SPARROW-HAWK. (Accipiter nisus.) 



This common and rapacious species is generally distributed through- 

 out the British Islands, wherever there are woodlands suited to its 

 habits. It preys chiefly on birds, and during the breeding-season, 

 often does great execution among the young of game-birds and poultry. 

 It usually constructs a nest of sticks, lined with twigs, and places it in 

 a tree at a considerable height from the ground ; but the old nest of a 

 Crow, Wood-Pigeon, or other bird is sometimes renovated and made 



