THE HARRIERS. 131 



may say that these characters, suggested as specific by Mi. 

 Howard Saunders more than twenty years ago, have over and 

 over again been proved by me to hold good. 



Montagu's Harrier, like several other species of the genus 

 Circus, is subject to melanism, and old birds are sometimes 

 found nearly black, while the young birds have also a melanistic 

 phase, this being often the case in English killed specimens. 



Range in Great Britain A spring and summer visitor, chiefly 

 to the southern and eastern counties, in some of which it still 

 breeds, recent instances having been recorded in the Isle of 

 Wight, Dorsetshire, and Norfolk. It has also been known to 

 nest in Wales, and even as far north as the Solway district in 

 Western Scotland, but everywhere in the north of England it 

 must be considered a rare and occasional visitor only. In Ire- 

 land it has occurred on four occasions, in Co. Wexford and 

 Co. Wicklow. 



Eange outside the British Islands. The present species does 

 not extend its range so far north as the Hen-Harrier, and the 

 neighbourhood of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland 

 appear to constitute the northern limits of the species in 

 Europe. In Central Europe and in Central and Southern 

 Russia it breeds generally, and in Spain it is a resident in 

 suitable localities, receiving a large accession of numbers in 

 winter. At this season of the year it not only migrates to 

 Northern Africa and the Canaries, but passes down the Nile 

 Valley, even to the Cape Colony. Eastwards the species is 

 found as far as Turkestan and South-western Siberia, but 

 has never been recorded from Eastern Siberia. The eastern 

 winter range extends to the Indian Peninsula and the Burmese 

 Provinces. 



Habits. This species is said by Colonel Irby to possess a 

 lighter and more Owl-like flight than the other European 

 Harriers, and the wings are longer in proportion than in the 

 other species of the genus Circus. It arrives in Central Europe 

 in March and April, and leaves in October. 



Not only during its winter migrations is the present species 

 gregarious, but it appears frequently to nest in company, and 

 Colonel Irby found a colony of fifteen or twenty pairs breeding 



K 2 



