108 FALCONID &. 
reasons to be given for adopting this change will be consi- 
dered even more than sufficient to justify it. 
The specific distinction of the Ash-coloured Harrier was 
first demonstrated by Colonel Montagu, in consequence of 
which M. Temminck, Vieillot, and Meyer, have called this 
bird Le Busard de Montagu, and probably other Continen- 
tal naturalists have done the same, as a tribute due to the 
discernment of our English Ornithologist ; there seems to 
be no good reason, therefore, that Montagu’s own country- 
men should not now adopt this complimentary memorial. 
At this time a fourth species of Harrier has been made 
known in the twenty-second and last part of Mr. Gould’s 
Birds of Europe; and others have been described as be- 
longing to different parts of Asia, Africa, and America, in 
each of which the adult males, as in all the true Harriers, 
are more or less ash-coloured; this term, therefore, no 
longer conveys a specific distinction. To this I may add, 
that Montagu himself, either by mistake or error of the 
press, has called this bird cineraceus in his Ornithological 
Dictionary, cinerarius in his supplement to the Dictionary 
and cinerareus in his paper in the Linnean Transactions, 
volume the ninth, page 188; it will therefore be an advan- 
tage, as well asa gratification, to call this bird in future 
Montagu’s Harrrier, and Circus Montagu. 
Specimens of Montagu’s Harrier of either sex may be 
readily distinguished from those of the Hen Harrier, 
although about equal to them in length, by being much 
more slender in shape, and not near so heavy, the average 
weight of Montagu’s Harrier bemg about nine and a 
quarter ounces, that of the Hen Harrier about thirteen 
ounces; the wings are also longer in reference to the 
end of the tail, and the third quill-feather of the wing is 
much more pointed; but in their habits, and the sort 
