Natural History of Ireland. 175 



terous insects, several whitish- coloured hairy caterpillars, the pupae 

 of a butterfly, and also of the six-spot burnet-moth (Zygaena filipen- 

 dulae,) together with some pieces of grass, which it is presumed were 

 taken in with this last-named insect, it being on the stalks of grass 

 that the pupae of this species of Zygsena are chiefly found. Mr 

 Thompson remarked, that this insectivorous food must to the honey 

 buzzard have been a matter of choice, the bird being in the full vi- 

 gour of its powers, and the district in which it was killed abounding 

 with such birds, as, were they its wished-for prey, it might have easily 

 captured and destroyed." 



The individual thus dwelt upon was a mature male. The bands on 

 the tail exhibit a greater inequality than is represented in any figure 

 I have seen, the first and second being less than an inch apart, the 

 third more than two and a-half inches distant from the second band. 



Marsh Harrier — Circus rufus, Briss. — I have had opportuni- 

 ties of examining four recent marsh harriers, which were killed in 

 Down and Antrim, but all in different localities — one only was an 

 adult male. A person conversant with birds has mentioned to me, 

 that he once saw an old male bird of this species on the banks of 

 Belfast bay at ebb-tide. 



A brood of these birds taken a few years ago from the nest on the 

 mountains of the county Monaghan was reared by Captain Bonham 

 of the 10th Hussars, who intended trying them in falconry, but for 

 this purpose they proved most intractable. Some years since, three 

 or four young marsh harriers were brought to Belfast from the moun- 

 tains of Ballynascreen (Londonderry) and I am credibly informed 

 that the species breeds at Claggan (Antrim). It is considered very 

 rare in Donegal. * Mr R. Ball states in a letter to me, that its 

 young have been brought to him at Youghal (Cork). In suitable 

 localities in the counties of Tipperary and Dublin I am informed 

 that it occurs. 



On dissection, the stomach of one of the first mentioned was found 

 full of frogs. 



Hen -Harrier — Circus cyaneus, Flem. — This handsome species 

 is generally distributed in Ireland. In Antrim I have been assured 

 that it breeds at Claggan, and occurs at all seasons in the mountains 

 around Ballymena. From an adult male being seen by an orni- 

 thological friend on the I5th of May near Glenarm, it is probably 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. Vol. v. p. 581. 



