THE HEN HARRIER. 83 



taking food ; but by my cutting half an inch off it, she was much 

 relieved, and now feeds well." Since the last-mentioned year, the 

 hen harrier has become very scarce there. Dr. Burkitt, of Water- 

 ford, has seen but two of these birds winch were shot near that 

 city, but they are said to be not uncommon about the river Suir, 

 near Portlaw. One of those alluded to, was obtained in the 

 following manner : — A sportsman having killed a snipe, was in the 

 act of reloading his gun, when the hawk sweeping quickly past him, 

 made a stoop to carry off the snipe, and when just seizing the bird, 

 was itself brought down by the second barrel. About Youghal 

 (co. Cork) this species is occasionally met with, * and in Kerry, 

 Mr. T. F. Neligan considered it to be common ; he had seen its 

 nests among the heath. 



When at Aberarder, Inverness -shire, in September, 1842, one of 

 these birds was observed on wing, and another adorned the " game- 

 keeper's museum " on the gable of the shooting-lodge. In the 

 middle of August, I have seen the ringtail flying above the sea- 

 cliffs near Yentnor, in the Isle of Wight. I had evidence that 

 this bird is found in the Morea, by observing an old female near 

 Navarino. From her being seen at the end of April, the species 

 probably breeds in that quarter, where there are localities admi- 

 rably suited to the purpose. 



Sir Wm. Jardine, in his notes to Wilson's American Ornitho- 

 logy, (vol. iii. p. 392,) and in his British Birds, (vol. i. p. 227,) 

 gives from observation a full and interesting account of the hen 

 harrier. 



The Ash-coloured or Montagu's Harrier (Circus Montagui; 

 Falco cineraceus) is not known as an Irish species ; nor has it a place 

 among Scottish birds (Jardine and Macgillivray), though it has been 

 met with in the border county of Northumberland. I have no doubt, 

 however, from the accurate description of a harrier shot by a very ob- 

 servant sportsman on his moor near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, in 1836, 

 that it was a male bird of this species. My friend had often killed the 

 hen harrier, and remarking the specimen in question as distinct from it, 

 described to me the differential characters, which precisely marked the 

 Circus cineraceus. Unfortunately it was not preserved. 



* Mr. R. Ball. 



g2 



