427 



5 



of Portugal with a query ; but in Spain it is common and resident. Colonel Irby says (Orn. Str. 

 Gibr. p. 32) : — " Near Gibraltar this Harrier is not often met with ; near Seville they are very 

 common, and dark specimens, some of them complete melanisms, are frequently procured. Near 

 Lixus, in Morocco, at the end of April, I found a regular colony (there must have been fifteen 

 or twenty pair) on a salt marsh across the river. I had no time to go round and examine the 

 ground, and could not cross the river at that place ; but we could see with my telescope the hen 

 birds sitting dotted about the marsh. The males took a particular line across our side of the 

 river; so I shot three for identification." Lord Lilford also informs me that he found it very 

 abundant in the great marshes of the Guadalquivir, below Seville ; and he remarks that the dark 

 chocolate-coloured variety is often seen there. It occurs in Savoy, and, Bailly says, in all pro- 

 bability is more common than it is usually supposed to be ; and in Italy, though it is the rarest 

 of the Harriers, it is very generally distributed throughout the country. It is found in Sicily, 

 but is principally met with on passage ; and Salvadori writes that he met with it rather frequently 

 on the south-west shore of the Lake of Cagliari, in Sardinia. In Malta it appears at the same 

 seasons as the other Harriers, but, Mr. Wright says, is much less common ; and in Greece and 

 the Ionian Islands it is also the least numerous of the Harriers. Lord Lilford states, however, 

 that it is not rare in Epirus in winter, and the great marsh of Livitazza is a favourite haunt of 

 this species. Dr. Kriiper records it as a winter visitant to Greece, and as being tolerably common, 

 but not occurring there in the summer. In Southern Germany, however, this Harrier is much 

 commoner. Dr. Fritsch writes (J. f. O. 1871, p. 181) that it is commoner than the Hen-Harrier 

 in Bohemia, and immature birds are often killed in the autumn, though it is but rarely seen in 

 fully adult dress. Lokaj states that it has bred near Rumburg. Messrs. Danford and Harvie- 

 Brown, who met with it in Transylvania, write (Ibis, 1875, p. 296) : — "Very common in the 

 Mezoseg, where we found them nesting among reeds, the nest being sometimes considerably 

 above the ground. We also met with them at Szent Mihaly ; and they are common near 

 Klausenburg, but not so abundant in the lower parts of the country." Mr. Farman says that it 

 is doubtful if it occurs in Bulgaria, for he never succeeded in obtaining a specimen ; but it is 

 certainly found in the Dobrudscha, and near Constantinople, where it has been obtained by 

 Mr. Robson. In the south of Russia it is by no means rare, and is resident. It is not only 

 found in the western districts, but right onto the southern spurs of the Altai. It occurs in 

 Asia Minor and in Palestine. Canon Tristram obtained it twice near Tiberias and on the plains of 

 Gennesareth in the spring ; and though he did not shoot it in the winter, he has no other grounds 

 for supposing it to be migratory. 



It Africa it is found as far south as the Cape colony. It is not very common in North-east 

 Africa, or, at least, in Egypt, where, Mr. E. C. Taylor says, it is less numerous than either of the 

 other two species of Harriers. Von Heuglin says that he observed it in Abyssinia, Sennaar, and 

 Kordofan from November to the middle of April, and that it doubtless also occurs in Egypt on 

 passage. In Semien he obtained one in the highest portion of the mountains ; and he also 

 observed it in West Abyssinia in the middle of April. Mr. Blanford says that he shot a young 

 male close to the coast in Samhar, about twenty-five miles north of Massowa, in Abyssinia ; and 

 Antinori writes (J. f. O. 1866, p. 194) that it is common in Sennaar after the rainy season, and 

 he killed a young male in November 1859 near the town of Sennaar. It is found in North-west 



