417 



fen districts, but since these fens were drained it now breeds but very rarely with us. According 

 to Mr. A. G. More and Professor Newton Devonshire and the eastern portion of Norfolk are 

 now its only regular breeding-places in England, though its nest may occasionally be found in 

 Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, and Shropshire. In Wales, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, 

 Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire, and the counties from Yorkshire northward it has become 

 historical. Lord Lilford informs me that he only once met with it in Northamptonshire ; 

 but he adds that he has frequently seen it in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, as also in various 

 parts of Wales, where it used to breed in the marshes near Powyn, in Merionethshire. Mr. 

 Cordeaux writes (B. of Humb. Distr. p. 10), the Marsh-Harrier "is now probably extinct in 

 North Lincolnshire. I have met with no specimen, dead or alive, during the last ten years. 

 Mr. Boyes mentions a young male Marsh -Harrier shot near Beverley on the 13th of October 

 1871, and remarks that it was quite a rare and accidental occurrence." Mr. Hancock says (B. of 

 North. & Durh. p. 17), Though this Harrier was "a few years ago common on swampy moor- 

 lands, where it bred, it has now almost disappeared under the policy of the game-preserver, 

 and has fallen, or is fast falling, from the rank of a resident to that of a mere casual visitant. 

 In 1823 I took a nest of it, with four eggs, on the moors at Wemmergill, near Middleton-in- 

 Teesdale, the shooting-box of the late Lord Strathmore. Both parent birds had been shot or 

 trapped by the gamekeeper, and formed part of his museum, nailed against the stable-walls. 

 This collection was made up of Hawks, Owls, Daws, Buzzards, and such like ' vermin,' both 

 biped and quadruped, being altogether one of the largest and most disgusting I have ever seen. 

 It is now quite impossible in the north of England for any gamekeeper to form such another 

 museum to bear testimony to his zeal and ignorance, as the so-called vermin no longer exist. 



"A few years ago my friend Mr. Thomas Thompson, of Winlaton, obtained a nest with four 

 eggs of the Marsh-Harrier near Haydon Bridge; and a female was shot at Hartington, near 

 Durham, August 1840." 



Mr. Bobert Gray writes respecting the occurrence of this species in Scotland (B. of W. of 

 Scotl. p. 51) as follows : — " Nearly all the Scottish specimens of the Marsh-Harrier which I have 

 had the opportunity of examining have been birds of the first and second year's plumage. It 

 appears to be of much rarer occurrence in most districts than the Hen-Harrier ; and in the Long 

 Island, especially where the nature of the ground is so attractive to a bird of its habits, it is but 

 very seldom seen, while its congener, the Ring-tail, may be called abundant. I have seen it on 

 wing sufficiently close to be recognized on the island of Benbecula ; and Macgillivray mentions 

 having met with it on Harris. It is possible, however, that it may be more common on North 

 and South Uist than my limited observations, especially on the last-named island, have led me 

 to believe. The Rev. Alexander Stewart, of Ballachulish, author of a series of excellent papers 

 on the Natural History of Nether Lochaber, published during the last few years in the ' Inverness 

 Courier,' has kindly informed me that the Marsh-Harrier is comparatively common in that 

 district, and also in the district of Appin, in Argyleshire. He has frequently seen it on the 

 wing, and handled at least a dozen specimens shot in his neighbourhood during the last seven or 

 eight years. 



" On the east coast of Scotland I am most familiar with this bird as an East-Lothian species, 

 having examined a number of specimens that were shot in that county. I noticed many years 



