and take wing witliout molestation. As no good cause 

 is promoted by over-statement, I \vill not attempt to deny 

 that all the Harriers are egg-stealers, but I would at the 

 same time remind game-preservers and our unfortunate 

 British agriculturists, that these birds are very active 

 and sharp-eyed enemies to field-mice, moles, and voles. 

 To the " British bird-collector," I fear that any appeal 

 on behalf of a comparatively scarce bird is only a waste 

 of time, and I can only say that these Harriers, in my 

 opinion, add greatly to the beauty and interest of the 

 moor-lands and mar.shes that still exist in our over- 

 crowded country. Montagu's Harrier is a summer 

 visitor to those parts of Europe in which it breeds, and, 

 when allowed to live, leaves our Islands in October. 

 A certain number of this species, however, visit this 

 country from the Continent on the autumnal migration, 

 and (I write under correction) most of the records of 

 occurrence at that season refer to birds of the year. To 

 those acquainted with the four European Harriers, the 

 adult males of this species may easily be distinguished 

 from those of the Hen-Harrier by their darker colouring, 

 their greater comparative length of wing, and their more 

 buoyant and irregular flight ; and having stated this, I 

 can write positively of having seen old male Montagu's 

 Harriers on several occasions in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, 

 and Devonshire. I never had the good fortune to find, 

 or even to see, an occupied nest of this bird in England, 

 and it was in Southern Spain that I first became in- 

 timately acquainted with it in its breeding-haunts. It 

 arrives in Andalucia in April, and for some time after 

 its arrival seemed (in my experience) to remain in 



