HEN-HARRIER. 129 



British Islands, viz. the Pallid Harrier, C. swainsoni. The adult male is 

 easily distinguished by its barred upper tail-coverts and the female and 

 immature bird by the shape of the fifth primaries. In C. cyaneus the 

 outer web is notched ; in C. swainsoni and C. cineraceus it is plain. 



The Hen-Harrier (a more appropriate name for which would be the 

 Mountain-Harrier) has a much more northern range than the other 

 European and Asiatic species ; I have often seen it on the tundras of 

 North Russia and Siberia, more than a hundred miles beyond the Arctic 

 circle. In its habits it differs little from the other European Harriers, but 

 is very partial to hill-sides, hunting them systematically with great per- 

 severance like a pointer, returning backwards and forwards over the same 

 ground. I have never seen them soar very high. They fly remarkably 

 steadily, with slow regular beats of the wings, like a Heron, turning sharply 

 with a twist of the tail like a Kite, now and then hovering like a Kestrel, 

 and anon skimming over the ground like a Grouse. In the valley of the 

 Petchora we used to see them resting on a manure-heap or flying over the 

 cultivated ground near the town ; and in Siberia I have shot down at them 

 from the top of the river-bank as they beat up and down stream on the 

 ground between the frozen river and the forest, in search of Snow-Bun- 

 tings. The Hen-Harrier is a migratory bird. According to Goebel they 

 pass through South-west Russia during the last half of March, one or two 

 occasionally remaining to breed. At Kazan they arrive in the middle of 

 April, and breed in some numbers. Bogdanow says they are occasionally 

 seen in the forests, but soon after their arrival hunt the plains and the steppes 

 with great regularity. In the valleys both of the Petchora and the Yene- 

 say we did not see them until the last week of May ; but it must be remem- 

 bered that we were on the Arctic circle. On the autumn migration they 

 pass through Germany during the month of September. I have never 

 found the nest of the Hen-Harrier; but it is generally reported to be a late 

 breeder. Harvie-Brown gives the 24th of May as the date when the first 

 egg was laid in a nest which he found in Sutherlandshire ; and Goebel 

 found two nests, in which the full number of eggs was not laid, in the 

 middle of June in South-west Russia. The site usually chosen is a dry 

 moor or amongst the heather ; and it has often been found in a cornfield. 

 The size and material used vary with the locality. Harvie-Brown describes 

 one on the bare hill-side as merely consisting of a few loosely arranged 

 heather-stems with a shallow depression in the centre lined with wiry dry 

 gra*s broken into small pieces. Another, placed in deep heather, was more 

 than a foot high, and composed of stout rank steins and roots of heather. 

 Goebel found one nest in the middle of a cornfield, and another concealed 

 in the long gfass on a dried-up marsh. He says they were two feet and a 

 half wide and nearly a foot high, made of dry straw and plants, very flat, 

 and lined with a few feathers. It is said that the female alone sits on the 



VOL. I. K 



