HEN HARRIER. 103 
by one inch four lines in breadth. The male sits occa- 
sionally during the period of incubation, and has been shot 
on the nest. The young are hatched early in June, and 
are at first covered with white down. 
The Hen Harrier, though nowhere very numerous, is 
pretty generally distributed in England, Ireland, and Scot- 
land. It imhabits the Hebrides and Orkneys, remaining 
in those northern islands all the winter. It appears to be 
less perfectly known in Scandinavia: but has been killed 
on some of the islands in the Baltic. Pennant, in his Arc- 
tic Zoology, says it is common in the open and temperate 
parts of Russia and Siberia, and extends as far as Lake 
Baikal. The Hen Harrier also inhabits Germany, France, 
Holland, Italy, Turkey, the Morea, Corfu, Sicily, and 
Malta; it was obtained at Smyrna by Mr. Strickland, 
and at Trebizond by K. E. Abbot, Esq. Le Vaillant 
found it in Africa, and describes it under the name of Le 
Busard Grenowllard. 
Whether the Hen Harrier of North America be really 
identical with the Hen Harrier of Kurope, is a point that 
is still debated. M.Temminck considers the specimens 
from Africa, and also those of North America, to be iden- 
tical with those of Europe. Wilson the Ornithologist, the 
Prince of Musignano,—who has added four parts to the 
American Ornithology of Wilson, uniform in size and ap- 
pearance with the original work,—and Mr. Audubon, con- 
sider the Hen Harrier of North America the same as 
that of Europe. Dr. Richardson and Mr. Swainson, ap- 
pear to have some doubts on this point, but have adopted 
the nomenclature and synonymes of the European Hen 
Harrier ; and indeed there is but slight difference in the 
markings of the plumage in the birds of the two countries, 
and none whatever in the habits. If this point of the 
