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THE


Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series. —Yol. IX.—No. 7 . — All rights reserved. MAY, 1918.



THE NESTING OF THE HEN HARRIER

IN NORTHERN SCOTLAND.


By Fleet-Surgeon K. H. Jones, R.N.


We climbed out of our dinghey on to the rough stone pier

and made our way past a well-built fisherman’s house, ornamented

with pieces of skate and other dried fishy fragments, into the yard

littered with old nets, lobster pots, and the various impedimenta of

the piscatorial art characteristic of the craft and the vicinity.


Turning our faces inland we traversed several fields laid down

in hay grass by a narrow footpath, crossed a good road, and began

the gentle slope which led up to the nearest heather-clad hill. After

a gentle climb of a few hundred yards we came out on a rough

country road skirting the bases of the hills, and proceeded to

follow it.


We followed this rough road for several miles, having for

the most part rough heather-clad hills on our left, and treeless

hedgeless fields, dotted with small neat houses, on our right.


Presently the road turned inland, and, crossing a little brook,

we began to ascend a wide shallow valley towards the crest of

the hills.


We gradually ascended a winding track used to bring down

the cart-loads of peat from the hilltops, and a Blackbird, who had


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