94 Falconidce. 



ing of the Marsh Harrier. In habits and haunts this species 

 very much resembles the last, but it oftener leaves the marshes 

 and fens in which it delights for commons and moors, and 

 breeds in the thick furze covers on the open wastes. It is said 

 to be a great destroyer of game, and to beat its hunting-grounds 

 with regularity and at stated intervals, crossing them in various 

 directions, day after day, and at the same hour of the day. It 

 is still to be met with in Wilts, though, like its congener, yearly 

 becoming scarcer. The Rev. G. Marsh had a pair in his 

 collection which were killed in Clarendon Park in 1823, and 

 stated that though not uncommon near Salisbury, he never saw 

 them in the neighbourhood of Chippenham. Mr. Stratton often 

 saw them on the downs above Lavington, and thought it pro- 

 bable they bred every year- in the gorse near him, but as the 

 gorse was being taken up, the bird would probably soon be 

 driven away. On the same downs Mr. B. Hayward has in years 

 gone by shot three specimens in one day, at a clump of trees 

 called Ashington Pennings, and another was killed at Market 

 Lavington by Mr. Stagg. Mr. Rawlence has specimens in his 

 collection killed in this county on the property of Lord Bath. 

 Of later years the Rev. A. P. Morres has met with both male and 

 female in his own parish of Britford, and has often observed 

 them on the downs near him, as well as in the neighbourhood of 

 Stonehenge; and has heard of others as seen near Cranbourn 

 Chace. Also a fine specimen, which proved to have been shot, 

 was picked up dead on some fallows near Salisbury. In North 

 Wilts it has, though rarely, been noticed on Roundway Down ; 

 and one was shot at Beckhampton by Mr. Went worth about the 

 year 1871. The Marlborough College Natural History Society's 

 Reports mention one shot in Savernake Forest in 1862, and six 

 said to have been seen together at Clench Common in 1864, one 

 of which was procured. Lord Nelson has a specimen which was 

 killed at Trafalgar. Mr. W. Wyndham shot one at Langford in 

 October, 1857, and Mr. Grant's list comprises in 1862 one from 

 Bratton ; in 1865 specimens from Netheravon, Amesbury, and 

 Figheldean ; in 1872 one from Bullford ; and in 1882 one from 



