90 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



our Falconida. I have never known an adult 

 male procured during the last ten years in Sus- 

 sex, and but few specimens of female, or imma- 

 ture birds. Montagu's harrier is more frequently 

 met with. A male and female are in the posses- 

 sion of a gentleman at Brighton, which were 

 shot at Wiversfield, in June, 1847. As both 

 birds were adult, and had been observed together 

 for some time previously, it is probable that their 

 nest was in the immediate vicinity. In Septem- 

 ber, 1844, a male was shot by the Duke of 

 Norfolk's head keeper, near Arundel, and another 

 in December of the same year by a gentleman 

 at West Wittering. I have seen a beautiful 

 specimen, an adult male, at Hollycombe, which 

 was obtained in that neighbourhood on the bor- 

 ders of Wolmer Forest; and another, a female, 

 which had been taken in a trap baited with a rab- 

 bit's scut, at Oafham, in March, 1842. 



The hen harrier is, as I have said, much more 

 generally distributed, and examples, for the most 

 part immature, are shot or trapped every year, 

 and figure either in the gamekeeper's larder or 

 the cabinet of the collector. 



Through this group of the Falconida we pass, 

 by an easy gradation, to the owls ; for the loose 

 and yielding character of the plumage, the pre- 

 sence of a facial disk, or ring of short, curled 



