92 



THE MOOR BUZZAED. 



graceful. The Harriers prefer to live on moors and similar localities, wliere they can 

 pursue their rather peculiar mode of hunting, and where they may find a secluded spot 

 for a secure home. Like the Kestrel, the Hen Harrier appears to have regular hunting- 

 grounds, and is very punctual in its visits. The nest of this bird is generally placed 

 under the shadow of some convenient furze-bush, and is composed of a few sticks thrown 

 loosely together, in which are deposited four or five very pale blue eggs. The young are 



hatched about the middle of June. 



The two sexes diner very 

 greatly in colour, and until com- 

 paratively recent times were re- 

 corded as distinct species. The 

 general colour of the adult male 

 is ashen grey from the beak and 

 upper parts, the only exception 

 being the primaries, which are 

 black. The throat and chin are 

 nearly of the same hue as the beak, 

 but the chest and abdomen are 

 white, with a slight blue tinge, 

 which is lost upon the plumage 

 of the thigh. On the under sur- 

 face of the tail are several indis- 

 tinct dark bars, and the hair-like 

 feathers between the eye and the 

 base of the beak are black. The 

 legs, toes, and cere are yellow, 

 the claws black, and the beak 

 nearly black, with a bluish tinge. 

 The length of the male bird is 

 about eighteen inches. 



The female is a much darker 

 bird, the head being mottled brown, 

 and the back and upper portions 

 of a deep dusky brown, the pri- 

 maries being but a little darker 

 than the plumage of the back. 

 The feathers of the under parts 

 are lighter brown, with pale mar- 

 gins, so as to present a kind of 

 mottled buff and chestnut aspect ; 

 the upper surface of the tail is 

 marked Avith partial dark bands, 

 and its under surface is very dis- 

 tinctly bound with broad bands 

 of black and greyish-white. The 

 . funnel-shaped depression round 

 the eyes, technically called the 

 concha, or shell, is brown towards 

 the base of the feathers, but merges into a white eyebrow above, reaching to the cere, 

 and in a white streak below, edged with brown. The length of the female is about two 

 inches more than that of the male, and her spread of wing is about three feet six inches. 



Another British example of this genus is to be found in the Mooe Buzzard as the 

 bird has very wrongly been termed, or the Marsh Harrier, as it ought more properly to 

 be named. The bird is also known as the Duck Hawk and Harpy. 



This handsome bird is considerably larger than the preceding species, the female being 



MOOR BUZZARD. — Circus ceruginosus. 



