32 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



dirty white ; tail- coverts white ; tail brown, with 

 three bars of rusty, two centre feathers greyish ash, 

 in the place of the rusty; tips of all the feathers 

 rusty; throat brown, with white streaks; breast, 

 belly and elongated feathers on the thighs light yel- 

 lowish rusty, streaked with light brown, the centre 

 of each feather being light brown ; under tail-coverts 

 yellowish white ; primary quills brown, shafts rusty. 



Young males are brown, like the female ; they 

 begin to change to blue in the second autumn : they 

 are also smaller than the female. 



The eggs are generally of a bluish white, occa- 

 sionally slightly marked with yellowish brown, which 

 agrees with the one in my own collection ; in some 

 specimens with more distinctly denned spots of light 

 brown.* 



MONTAGU'S HARRIER, Circus Montagui. Mon- 

 tagu's Harrier, or the Ashcoloured Harrier (Circus 

 cineraceus of many authors), is, as I have before ob- 

 served, not so rare in this county as the Hen Har- 

 rier : the two species are, however, frequently con- 

 founded. The last occurrence of this species that 

 came under my own notice was a few years ago, 

 when a pair of these birds, together with their nest 

 and young, were taken by Mr. Bisset's keeper at 

 Pixton : they were all preserved by Mrs. Turle, and 

 are, I believe, still in Mr. Bisset's collection. I have 



* See Hewitson. 



