MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 14 1 



we learn that it has been observed during the whole summer 

 in Denmark and is supposed to breed there, but it is un- 

 known in Norway : in Sweden only a few examples have been 

 taken and these in the extreme south, and in Finland its 

 appearance is merely accidental. Nothing seems to have 

 been recorded with certainty as to its distribution in European 

 or Asiatic Kussia ; but from the facts that Mr. Swinhoe gives 

 it as occurring on the river Yang-tsee in China, while Mr. 

 Jerdon says that it is abundant and migratory in every part 

 of India, and Mr. Gurney has seen it from Ceylon, one may 

 pretty safely infer that it is to be found at least in the 

 southern parts of Central Asia, and the Leyden Museum 

 possesses a specimen from the mouth of the Jaik. Mene- 

 tries saw it only in the Caucasus, where it is rare ; Mr. 

 Abbott procured it at Trebizond, and Canon Tristram ob- 

 tained it twice in Palestine. In Egypt it occurs on passage 

 and is abundant in the highlands of Abyssinia in winter and 

 spring. It is also found in Sennaar and Kordofan. Mr. 

 Layard saw many examples and killed one on one of the 

 Comoro Islands, and, although rare, it has been several 

 times obtained in the Cape Colony and in Damara-land. 

 Loche gives it as breeding in Algeria, and Mr. Drake saw 

 it on several occasions in Eastern Morocco, while M. 

 Bertholet records it from the Canaries. In Portugal Prof, 

 du Bocage says that it is common, and .Mr. Saunders that 

 it is resident throughout the year in southern Spain, where 

 it is tolerably numerous. In some parts of France it would 

 seem to be very abundant ; thus, in the Department of the 

 Vienne, near Loudun, M. Barbier Montault states in an 

 interesting account of its habits, in the ' Kevue Zoologique ' 

 for 1838, that he has seen it, at the close of the breeding 

 season, not merely by hundreds but by thousands, the birds 

 collecting towards evening to roost in company ; and it may 

 be observed of this species as of the preceding that it seldom 

 if ever perches, but passes the night on the ground among 

 rough herbage or heather. 



The length of the adult male is about seventeen inches. 

 The beak is nearly black ; the cere greenish-yellow ; the 



