HEN HARRIER. 39 



found in the North and West Ridings, yet it is to be regretted 

 that the ornithological records of our county relating to that 

 period are exceedingly meagre and scarce, the following being 

 all the information I have been able to obtain on the nidilication 

 of the species. 



As to its formerly nesting near Scarborough Mr. P. Hawk- 

 ridge of that place, writing in Neville Wood's Naturalist (1838, 

 p. 106) under date of August 7, 1837, says: "Specimens are 

 repeatedly shot on the moors near Scarborough. They also breed 

 there." In 1844, as Mr. Thomas Allis was informed by Messrs. 

 J. & W. Tuke, it still bred on Hambleton and in the neighborhood 

 of Pickering. Mr. Wm. H. Raw of Lealholm in Cleveland, in 

 speaking of a pair in his possession, says: "They were shot about 

 30 years since [about 1850] by my father, Robert Raw, near Danby 

 Beacon, where they had a nest. I have heard my father say that 

 at that time scarcely a year passed without a breed of these 

 Harriers somewhere on the Danby Moors; but of late years they 

 have been very scarce and rarely seen." Mr. R. Standen of 

 Goosnargh near Preston informs me that a nest supposed to have 

 been of this species was found in Langden Fell, on the borders 

 of Lancashire, by a shepherd lad; it contained three bluish-white 

 eggs. The lad described both the nest and the bird pretty plainly. 



Writing in 1828 Mr. Leyland mentioned it as rare in the 

 Halifax district; and in 1840 Mr. H. Denny of Leeds described 

 it as rare and mentioned Halifax, Thorp Arch and Selby as 

 localities in which it had occurred. 



In 1844 Mr. Allis reported it as not uncommon on the low 

 grounds and carrs near Doncaster, but seldom met with in the 

 East Riding, rare near Sheffield, and seen not unfrequently near 

 Huddersfield. 



Mr. W. M. Morris mentioned in the Naturalist (1853, p. 60) 

 one killed near Stockton-on-Tees on the i ith of October, 1852. 



Mr. T. Lister of Barnsley informs me that one was shot in 

 December 1875 on the moors beyond Penistone. 



On the 30th of November 1876 Mr. James Varley of 

 Huddersfield saw a female at Plebden Bridge. 



