88 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



the various families of birds, and how insensible 

 are the transitions from one genus to another. 

 Thus, the short-eared owl (Otus brachyotos) Strix 

 accipitrina of earlier authors appears in some 

 respects more like a hawk than an owl as in the 

 incomplete development of the facial disk, the ra- 

 pidity of its flight, the boldness of its attack, and 

 its diurnal habits ; while the hen harrier (Circus 

 cyaneus) Falco cyaneus of Linnaeus seems to 

 be as nearly allied to the owls. 



Of the three species of Circus, the marsh har- 

 rier or moor buzzard (Circus teruginosus), the hen 

 harrier, and Montagu's harrier (Circus Montagui), 

 the second is by far the most generally distributed, 

 although all three must now be considered compa- 

 ratively rare in Sussex, even on the gorse-covered 

 Downs, exposed moors, and marshy commons 

 where they once abounded. 



The great variety of plumage presented by 

 birds of this genus, now clearly ascertained to be 

 referable to age and sex, might easily have in- 

 duced a belief in the existence of many species, 

 at a period when this portion of British Ornitho- 

 logy had been but little investigated. The males 

 of the two latter, after the first autumnal moult, 

 gradually assume the adult plumage, which ap- 

 pears to be at least three years in arriving at per- 

 fection ; the upper parts being then generally of a 



