MONTAGUS HARRIER. 109 



of country they are most partial to, the two species m. 

 very similar. 



Mr. Selby, who has observed and obtained several ex- 

 amples in Northumberland, says, " it skims along the sur- 

 face of the ground like the Hen Harrier, but with more 

 rapid flight, and more strikingly buoyant." Its food is 

 small birds and reptiles : the stomach of one examined by 

 Montagu contained the remains of a Skylark ; and Mr. 

 Orton Aikin found portions of five lizards in a male killed 

 in Cambridgeshire. The nest is placed on the ground, 

 generally among furze ; the eggs seldom exceeding four in 

 number, very similar, as might be expected, to those of 

 the Hen Harrier ; they are white, one inch seven lines in 

 length, and one inch four lines in breadth. The young, 

 according to Mr. Jenyns, are hatched about the second 

 week in June. 



Montagu's Harrier has been met with in the counties of 

 Devonshire and Cornwall, and Mr. Eyton informs me he 

 has received one specimen from Dolgelly ; but farther than 

 this to the westward I have not traced it, no examples as 

 far as I am aware having as yet been recognised by Orni- 

 thologists in Ireland. North of London it appears to be 

 most plentiful in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. At 

 the latter end of the summer of 1831, my friend Mr. 

 Orton Aikin had in his garden at Cambridge the young of 

 each of our three species of Harriers, and was bringing 

 them up together. They had been procured in the fens 

 within a few miles. Three or four specimens of Montagu's 

 Harrier are recorded by Mr. Selby as having been ob- 

 tained in Durham and Northumberland ; but Mr. Macgil- 

 livray says it has not, as far as he knows, been observed 

 in Scotland. 



According to M. Temminck, and other naturalists, 



