128 LLOYI^ NATURAL HISTORY. 



of its food, which consists of small mammals and reptiles, 

 these forming its chief subsistence, though it will also catch 

 small birds, and devour both eggs and nestlings of Game- 

 Birds. Professor Newton describes the flight of the Hen- 

 Harrier as performed apparently without much labour, easy 

 and buoyant, but not rapid, and, except in the breeding- 

 season, generally within a few feet of the surface of the 

 ground, which they examine with great care, making close and 

 diligent search for any object of food They have been ob- 

 served to hunt the same ground regularly, and a male bird has 

 been seen to examine a large wheat-stubble thoroughly, cross- 

 ing it in various directions, always about the same hour in the 

 afternoon, and for many days in succession. 



Taczanowski says that the present species feeds on rodents, 

 frogs, lizards, large insects, and the eggs and chicks of small 

 birds, but it also often catches the old birds on their nests or 

 when they are hiding in the grass. Sometimes it will pursue 

 the small birds as they fly up from the latter, but if the 

 Harrier does not manage to catch them at once, it soon 

 relinquishes the chase. It will sometimes capture Sandpipers, 

 Quails, Plovers, and other birds. The eggs which it devours 

 are mostly those of small birds which breed on the ground, 

 such as the small Plovers, but Ducks' nests are but seldom 

 plundered by it, as it does not often frequent the places where 

 those birds breed. 



Nest. The nest is placed on the ground, and according to 

 Taczanowski, who has given a very interesting account of the 

 habits of this Harrier, it is often situated in the brushwood 

 in the middle of the prairies or marshes, and in many localities 

 in corn-fields. The nest is generally in a dry situation, never 

 in very moist places, more often on the flat ground than on 

 any small elevation. The nest contains few branches, and 

 never rushes ; as a rule, on a bed composed of some sort of 

 rameaux, the bird deposits a layer of fine and long dry grass, 

 so as to form a compact mass, flattened down, about two feet 

 wide and four or five inches high, slightly hollowed towards 

 the centre of the nest. The eggs are generally four in number, 

 more rarely three. The female sits very close, and will not 

 move even when a man passes quite near to the nest, but the 



