81 



THE HEN HARRIER. 



Ringtail. 



Circus cyaneus, Linn, (sp.) 

 Falco „ „ 



Is pretty generally distributed over the island. 



In snipe-shooting, it is generally met with. The first that came 

 under my own notice appeared when a friend and I were in search 

 of snipes, in a boggy spot among the Belfast mountains (Antrim), 

 when a female bird hovered above us in the manner of a kestrel, 

 and was not alarmed by our presence, nor by that of our dogs 

 engaged in " beating " the ground immediately beneath : — her life 

 fell a sacrifice to my gun. The species is scarce there. On the 

 lower skirts of these mountains, the hen harrier is still more rarely 

 seen, but has been met with "flying through the fields, and 

 beating the sides of the hedges as it proceeded." Such birds 

 were immature, and occurred late in the autumn or in winter ; — 

 they were probably bred at some little distance, where there is an 

 extensive tract of moor. At Claggan, &c, the nests have not 

 uncommonly been found among the heath. In suitable localities, 

 such as prevail throughout the greater part of the county of An- 

 trim, the adult birds remain during the year, and the male is 

 always conspicuous from his light-coloured plumage ; — appearing, 

 indeed, at first sight like a sea-gull. A sporting friend in the 

 county of Londonderry informs me, that there are many " white 

 hawks " on his mountains at Ballynascreen, whose nests, — occa- 

 sionally two in the season, — he has met with in the heath. The 

 hen harrier is not included in Mr. J. V. Stewart's published 

 catalogue of the birds of Donegal, but, in a letter to me from that 

 gentleman, has been mentioned as a subsequent addition. When 

 at "the Horn" in 1832, the gamekeeper alluded to his having 

 the winter before, seen a " white hawk " strike a curlew (Nume- 

 nius arquata) in passing, and break its wing, which so disabled 

 the bird that it became an easy capture to my informant. About 

 Bogay, in that county, old male birds are said to be frequently 



VOL. I. G 



