MARSH-HARRIER. 131 



throughout Spain, and positively swarming in the marshes 

 of the Guadalquivir. In France it is apparently far less 

 common, though it breeds in the singular district of the 

 Camargue at the mouth of the Ehone. In parts of Belgium 

 and in Holland it is numerous, and it breeds also in Denmark 

 and Germany, while in Turkey it is said to be more abundant 

 than any other bird-of-prey. 



The length of the Marsh-Harrier is from twenty-one to 

 twenty- three inches, depending on the sex ; wing fourteen 

 and a half inches. The figure here given was taken from 

 an adult male in the British Museum. The beak is bluish- 

 black ; the cere and irides yellow ; the top of the head, 

 cheeks and nape of the neck, yellowish-white, tinged with 

 rufous, and streaked with dark brown ; the back, wing- 

 coverts and tertials, dark reddish-brown, with lighter mar- 

 gins ; the primaries brownish-black ; the secondaries and 

 tail ash-grey. It is possible that this state of plumage is 

 not assumed till the third moult. In birds that are still 

 older, the wing-coverts and tertials in addition become par- 

 tially or entirely ash-grey ; the primaries slate-grey ; the 

 chin and throat nearly white ; the breast rufous, streaked 

 longitudinally with dark brown ; belly, thighs and under 

 tail-coverts, reddish-brown, each feather streaked with dark 

 brown ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. 



In young birds of the year, the whole of the plumage is 

 chocolate-brown ; the feathers tipped with lighter reddish- 

 brown : the irides then are yellowish-hazel and remain so in 

 the females at all ages. 



In the second year, the head, neck, chin and throat 

 become dull yellow, with occasionally a patch of the same 

 colour on the carpus, or anterior point of the wing. The 

 figure given by Bewick represents a bird in this stage. 



Messrs. Elwes and T. E. Buckley mention a specimen of a 

 deep brown, almost black, all over. 



"Duck-Hawk," "Harpy," and "White-headed Harpy," 

 are names occasionally bestowed on the Marsh-Harrier. 



