144 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



kept. One Tvotild have supposed that indigenous specimens of a very 

 iiiterestiug bird deserved better treatment. In the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensiugton there is a nest and a pair of old birds of 

 this Harrier from Dorsetshire, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has recorded a 

 nest which was discovered in a clover-field at Winterbourne Kingston, on 

 24th June, 1887, in which were four eggs, of a bluish-white colour, with 

 a few indistinct red spots and streaks (' Zoologist,' 1887, p. 405). 



An old keeper, with whom we formerly shot Snipe at Shapwick, on the 

 Mid-Somerset turf-moors, iu describing to us the different Ijirds he came 

 across in his early days, made us feel certain that Montagu's Harrier used 

 to occur, and probably nested, in that strange district. 



Although presenting a superficial resemblance to the preceding S])ccies, 

 this Harrier is somewhat smaller, and may at once be known ])y its longer 

 wings, reaching, when closed, almost to the extremity of the tail ; whereas 

 in the Hen-Harrier the wings do not extend within some two inches of the 

 end of the tail when folded. The flight of Montagu's Harrier is in con- 

 sequence more buoyant, so much so that it almost resembles a large Tern 

 when on wing. The adult male may also be readily distinguished by the 

 pretty chestnut bar which extends across the underside of the wings, 

 which in the Hen-Harrier are pure white beneath. 



Black varieties of the various Harriers are sometimes met with. There 

 is one of this Harrier in the Exeter Museum from Lyme Ilegis, in Dor- 

 setshire. ^Mr. Elliot, of Trcsillian, Kingsbridge, had another in his fine 

 collection of birds which was shot by a farmer in his neighbourhood. This 

 black example furnishes an instance of the narrow escapes often sustained 

 by Valuable specimens of rare birds. Mr. Edmund Elliot has informed us 

 that after it was shot iin September 184'J) it was thrown away, and some 

 time after the farmer, coming into Kingsbridge, told Mr. Xicholls, the bird- 

 preserver, that he had shot a " black Hawk." On surprise being expressed 

 at his account of the bird, and a reward being offered for its discover}-, it 

 was searched for, but it was not until a fortnight later it was jncked up 

 among the cliffs near Prawle Point and brought in, when it was with great 

 difficulty preserved and made into a presentable specimen. 



Montagu's Harrier feeds on moles, mice, lizards, slow-worms, insects, 

 birds' eggs, &c. A viper appears to be a favourite dainty, for Mr. E. H. 

 Itodd has related that, when every other bait failed, a trap on which was 

 placed a viper proved fatal to one of these harmless and interesting 

 loirds. 



A few years since we were informed by Mr. H. XichoUs, of Kings- 

 bridge, that Montagu's Harrier nested annually on the coast between Bolt 

 Head and Bolt Tail. In June 1870 he had occasion to visit the downs 

 between those two headlands in search of a scarce and local blue butter- 

 fly [Lyrcvna arion), and twice observed a pair of Montagu's Harrier 

 quartering the ground, and since then a female has been shot at this very 

 locality. 



Montagu discriminated this species in 1802, from a male killed in 

 winter in Wiltshire, and named it the Ash-coloured Ealcon (Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. ix. p. Ib8), and in the following year he examined a specimen recently 



