Hen Harrier. 93 



doubtless soon be exterminated, owing to the draining and 

 reclaiming of waste lands, which, however profitable to the 

 agriculturist, is annually destroying many of our most interest- 

 ing birds. 



17. HEN HARRIER (Circus cyaneus). 



Far more common than the last, at any rate in this part of 

 England, is the Hen Harrier or Ringtail ; for Montagu in this 

 country, and Temminck on the Continent, have both clearly 

 proved, what is now universally acknowledged by ornitho- 

 logists, that these two titles apply to the same bird, though 

 to the two sexes, which when adult differ very widely both in 

 size and colour. The male, to which alone the title of Hen 

 Harrier was originally given, was so named from its supposed 

 liking for fowls ; it was also called the ' Blue Hawk ' and ' Dove 

 Hawk/ from its pearl-gray colour; whence also the scientific 

 name cyaneus, from /cvavtos, 'blue.' The female bore the 

 title of Ringtail, from the bars of dark and light brown so 

 conspicuous in her tail. Nilsson, the Swedish naturalist, de- 

 clared that at a distance the old male might readily be taken for 

 the Common Gull, " for both its flight, size, and colour are pretty 

 similar.' It is known in that country by the somewhat clumsy 

 name of Kdrr Hok med Halskrage, or 'Marsh Hawk with a 

 Ruff;' in Italy as Falco con il collare, and in France as Faucon 

 a collier, all of which are descriptive enough of the circular disk 

 or collar which encircles the face of the female. But it is also, 

 and more commonly, known in France as L'oiseau Saint Martin, 

 though for what reason I cannot discover. Sometimes it has 

 been designated as La Soubuse, or ' lesser Buzzard,' and some- 

 times as Le Busard grenouillard and Falco ranivorus, from its 

 partiality^for frogs. Either this, or Falco montanus, as some 

 old authors called it, and the ' Mountain Harrier,' as Seebohm 

 suggests, would be appropriate names, for the title it now bears 

 (' Hen Harrier,') is generally quite misunderstood. In Germany 

 it is Halbweihe, or ' Half-Kite ; and in Malta Bu-ghadam abiad, 

 ' the White Father of Bones,' for the reason given above in speak- 



