108 FALCONIDJ;. 



reasons to be given for adopting this change will be consi- 

 dered even more than sufficient to justify it. 



The specific distinction of the Ash-coloured Harrier was 

 first demonstrated by Colonel Montagu, in consequence of 

 which M. Temminck, Vieillot, and Meyer, have called this 

 bird Le Busard de Montagu, and probably other Continen- 

 tal naturalists have done the same, as a tribute due to the 

 discernment of our English Ornithologist ; there seems to 

 be no good reason, therefore, that Montagu's own country- 

 men should not now adopt this complimentary memorial. 

 At this time a fourth species of Harrier has been made 

 known in the twenty-second and last part of Mr. Gould's 

 Birds of Europe ; and others have been described as be- 

 longing to different parts of Asia, Africa, and America, in 

 each of which the adult males, as in all the true Harriers, 

 are more or less ash- coloured ; this term, therefore, no 

 longer conveys a specific distinction. To this I may add, 

 that Montagu himself, either by mistake or error of the 

 press, has called this bird cineraceus in his Ornithological 

 Dictionary, cinemrius in his supplement to the Dictionary 

 and cinemreus in his paper in the Linnean Transactions, 

 volume the ninth, page 1 88 ; it will therefore be an advan- 

 tage, as well as a gratification, to call this bird in future 

 Montagu's Harrrier, and Circus Montagui. 



Specimens of Montagu's Harrier of either sex may be 

 readily distinguished from those of the Hen Harrier, 

 although about equal to them in length, by being ^tnuch 

 more slender in shape, and not near so heavy, the average 

 weight of Montagu's Harrier being about nine and a 

 quarter ounces, that of the Hen Harrier about thirteen 

 ounces ; the wings are also longer in reference to the 

 end of the tail, and the third quill-feather of the wing is 

 much more pointed ; but in their habits, and the sort 



