MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 109 
of country they are most partial to, the two species are 
very similar. 
Mr. Selby, who has observed and obtained several ex- 
amples in Northumberland, says, ‘‘it skims along the sur- 
face of the ground like the Hen Harrier, but with more 
rapid flight, and more strikingly buoyant.” Its food is 
small birds and reptiles: the stomach of one examined by 
Montagu contained the remains of a Skylark; and Mr. 
Orton Aikin found portions of five lizards in a male killed 
in Cambridgeshire. The nest is placed on the ground, 
generally among furze; the eggs seldom exceeding four in 
number, very similar, as might be expected, to those of 
the Hen Harrier; they are white, one inch seven lines in 
length, and one inch four lines in breadth. The young, 
according to Mr. Jenyns, are hatched about the second 
week in June. 
Montagu’s Harrier has been met with in the counties of 
Devonshire and Cornwall, and Mr. Eyton informs me he 
has received one specimen from Dolgelly ; but farther than 
this to the westward I have not traced it, no examples as 
far as I am aware haying as yet been recognised by Orni- 
thologists in Ireland. North of London it appears to be 
most plentiful in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. At 
the latter end of the summer of 1831, my friend Mr. 
Orton Aikin had in his garden at Cambridge the young of 
each of our three species of Harriers, and was bringing 
them up together. They had been procured in the fens 
within a few miles. Three or four specimens of Montagu’s 
Harrier are recorded by Mr. Selby as having been ob- 
tained in Durham and Northumberland ; but Mr. Macgil- 
livray says it has not, as far as he knows, been observed 
in Scotland. 
According to M. Temminck, and other naturalists, 
