164 HAWKS AND HAWK-LIKE BIRDS. 



Nest. Of roots, stalks, heather, grass, and wool, in 

 varying proportions, placed on the ground in moor- 

 land, often on a slope. 



Distribution. Sparsely on the wilder moorlands 

 of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, descending 

 to the lowlands in autumn, when its numbers are 

 increased by immigrants. 



The Hen-Harrier is a bird of the wilder moorlands 

 of Wales, the north of England, and the Scottish 

 Highlands, where it nests on the ground, affecting 

 chiefly marshy tracts. Like all the Harriers, it is 

 a bird of the open country, and when seen searching 

 for the small mammals and reptiles, young birds and 

 birds' eggs, upon which it subsists, beating over the 

 ground carefully with a low, buoyant, but not rapid 

 flight, the male, by its delicate blue-gray upper parts 

 and breast, and its white face and under parts, pre- 

 sents to some extent the aspect of a gray-backed Gull. 

 The Hen-Harrier uses the heavy wing-stroke, and 

 at times the soaring motions, of the Buzzard. When 

 disturbed in its nesting quarters, the male bird, after 

 retreating before the intruder, will return on a straight 

 line as if about to charge, but breaking aside, flies off 

 for a space, to return in a similar manner. The note 

 resembles ' Ker ! ker ! ker!' 



MONTAGU'S HARRIER 18-19 inches. Although re- 

 sembling the Hen- Harrier in the blue-gray of its upper 

 parts, the throat and breast of Montagu's Harrier are 

 ashy-gray, the remaining under parts and the thiglia 

 white, both with longitudinal ruddy streaks ; wings re- 

 latively longer. A bird principally of the south-eastern 

 counties of England. 



