28 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



described by Meyer and Yarrell ; others, however, 

 are occasionally of a darker colour. Bill bluish 

 horn; cere yellow; irides light yellow; head and 

 neck, both above and below, nearly white, streaked 

 with light brown; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, 

 secondaries and tertials light yellowish brown, each 

 feather edged with yellowish white ; primary quills 

 dusky, more or less edged and tipped with white; 

 tail yellowish brown, base of the feathers white, and 

 tips white ; breast white, streaked with yellowish 

 brown ; belly, upper parts of the thighs and flanks 

 brown, making a broad band of that colour round 

 the under part of the bird ; under tail-coverts nearly 

 white ; elongated feathers on the thighs dirty white, 

 barred with yellowish brown ; tarsus feathered to the 

 junction of the toes ; feathers dirty white and yel- 

 lowish brown ; toes yellow. 



The eggs of this species appear to be something 

 like, and to vary much in the same way as, those 

 of the Common Buzzard. 



MARSH HARRIER, Circus <zruginosus. All the 

 Harriers are now becoming very scarce throughout 

 the whole country : occasional notices of their occur- 

 rence appear in the * Zoologist,' and other works of 

 a similar nature, but they are generally very few and 

 far between : the particular species now under con- 

 sideration appears to be almost extinct in this 

 county. The greater part of the few specimens 

 I have ever seen of the Marsh Harrier that had 



