70 CIRCUS ^EUGINOSUS. 



Mr. W. Thompson says (^ Birds of Ireland/ vol. i. p. 78):— "This 

 species appears'' to be "of more frequent occurrence in Ireland than in 

 Scotland. At the commencement of the grouse-shooting season, many years 

 ago, a late nest was found on the ground among the heath on the mountains of 

 Mounterlowny, in Tyrone, by an old sporting friend. He has often seen the 

 Marsh-Harrier ^quarter' its ground like a setting dog, as the Hen-Harrier is 

 well known to do, and considers his performance in this way equal to that of 

 the latter species." 



The egg-eating propensity of Circus ceruginosus may have raised the ire 

 of keepers, and been one cause of its extermination. 



Mr. Howard Saunders relates a case of this (Ibis, 1869, n. s. vol. v. 

 p. 178) in the marisma near Seville: — '^A promising marsh, over which 

 more than a score of Marsh- Harriers were hovering, lay in the way ; and we 

 had not worked it long when a fine Purple Gallinule (^Porphyrio veterum) rose 

 heavily from under Manuel's feet: and next instant a shout of 'Nido de 

 Gallo-azul y tres huevos ' brought me floundering through mud and water 

 knee-deep to the spot. ... I had left one of the eggs of the Gallinule, in 

 hopes that the bird might lay more ; and on my return I was concerned to 

 see a Marsh-Harrier hover and finally settle down just over the site of the 

 nest. Pushing my way to the spot, I fairly ripped the robber open with a 

 charge of large shot, finding her bill still dripping with the yelk of the precious 

 egg, worth more to me than all the Harriers together." 



Mr. R. C. Beavan says (P. Z. S. 1868, p, 398), in his article on Indian 

 Raptores :— " I shot this bird in the Maunbhoom district, in the act of 

 stealing the eggs of the common Speckled Dove (Turtur suratensis) from a 

 nest in a s41 tree (Shorea robustd)/' 



Mr. Gould, in ' Handbook to the Birds of AustraUa,' vol. i. p. 59, quotes 

 Mr. White as authority for making eggs the food of Circus assimilis, the 

 representative form in that country. 



