FALCOXID^. 139 



Order ACCIPITRES. 



Family FALCONID^. 



THE HARRIEES. 



The Harriers and the Buzzards form a connecting-link 

 between the Owls and the true Falcons. The Harriers 

 are birds of slender bodies, long legs, tails, and wings, 

 possessing a buoyant. Gull-like flight, generally low over 

 the surface of the ground. Their possession of facial disks 

 would indicate that they are partly crepuscular, and that 

 they prey to some extent upon the small rodents which 

 come forth to feed at dusk. But they are bold and power- 

 ful birds, and the Marsh-Harrier, in particular, flies at 

 larger game. It would be necessary to go back quite to 

 the beginning of the present century to find a time when 

 the three British species of Harrier were at all numerous 

 in Devonshire. Our book is unfortunately, in several 

 instances, only the obituary of interesting species, among 

 which must be included the Harriers — one of them, the 

 ^larsh-Harrier, quite exterminated as a resident in the 

 county, while the other two, the Hen-Harrier and the 

 pretty Montagu's Harrier, are fast becoming so and are 

 to-day very rarely seen. In the time of Col. Montagu the 

 fine Marsh-Harrier was common on most of the estuaries 

 on the look-out for wild-fowl, while its visits to rabbit- 

 warrens were dreaded by the warreners. 



The Hen-Harrier then nested among the furze on almost 

 every moor and common, where it was sometimes joined by 

 the slighter species, now known to be only a summer mi- 

 grant, and first discriminated by Col. Montagu, and j^nining 

 from that circumstance its specific name. 'J'lie Harriers are 



