445 



April, according as the season is an early or a late one. In the Terai and Dhoon they may 

 linger somewhat longer, as I have a specimen from the latter killed on the 20th of April. 

 Whether they breed in the Himalayas, on this side of the Snowy Range, I cannot say ; I have 

 never met with a single one during my summer rambles in the hills, and very much doubt their 

 breeding south of the snows." It has been met with in Ceylon ; and Mr. Holdsworth says that 

 it is common in the Aripo district throughout the year, and he has frequently seen it at Nuwara 

 Eliya in July and August. It is not recorded from Mongolia by Colonel Prjevalsky, but is 

 found, though rarely, in China. Pere David says that he obtained it once near Pekin ; and 

 according to Swinhoe (Ibis, 1874, p. 268) Captain Blakiston procured it on the Yangtsze 

 river. 



In habits and mode of nidification the present species differs but little from the Heu- 

 Harrier. Lord Lilford says that it is perhaps less addicted to marshes than that species, and he 

 usually saw it hunting over corn-fields ; and Dr. Jerdon, writing on its habits, says (l. c.) : — " It 

 frequents open, stony plains, and cultivated ground, occasionally flying through a cantonment. 

 It hunts the plains, regularly beating and squaring its ground, and occasionally hunting along 

 hedgerows, or the edge of some thick bush. It feeds chiefly on reptiles and insects, also occa- 

 sionally on small mice and shrews, and weak, or sickly, or wounded birds, especially Quails. I 

 have only once seen it perched on a tree. In general it perches on a stone, or a mound of earth, 

 or an ant-hill, or even on the ground. Its powerful sense of hearing must be of great use to it 

 when seated on the ground at night, to give it warning of the approach of any animal : but yet 

 occasionally it is surprised at night by a jackal, fox, or mongoose ; for I have not unfrequently 

 found its feathers on the bund of a field. The flight of the Harrier is usually slow, a few beats 

 alternating with a sailing motion ; but it is capable of, and now and then takes, sudden flights of 

 considerable energy after a bird which it thinks it can capture. The sudden way in which it 

 can stop its flight, and drop down on the ground on some quarry, must have been witnessed by 

 many. Its stealthy, noiseless mode of flight, and the sudden pouncing on its prey, have gained 

 for it the appropriate Telugu and Tamul name of Cat Kite." 



Like that of the other species of Harrier, the nest of the Pallid Harrier is placed on the 

 ground, and resembles that of Circus cineraceus, being a mere depression in the soil lined with 

 grass-bents or leaves ; and the eggs, four or five in number, are bluish white in colour, resembling 

 those of Circus cineraceus. Those in my collection, from the Lower Volga and Bulgaria, measure 

 from 1ft) by 1^ to lf-jy by \\^ inch, and one or two are richly, though somewhat sparingly, 

 spotted with deep red ; but this variety appears to be but rare. 



Mr. Shai'pe (I. c.) has deemed it advisable to discard the name by which the present species 

 has so long been known, and has called it Circus macrurus (Gm.), this name being based on 

 Falco macrurus, S. G. Gmelin (Reise durch Eussland, i. p. 48, 1770); but I cannot at all agree 

 with him in this view ; for, after carefully comparing the description given by Gmelin with 

 specimens of Circus cyaneus and Circus sivainsoni, I find that it may equally well be applied to 

 either, and is certainly not sufficiently clear to enable one to identify it as agreeing with the 

 Pallid Harrier. Under these circumstances it appears to me to be most unnecessary to discard 

 an old and well-known name in favour of one of very doubtful value, and I prefer to retain Smith's 

 name of swainsoni for the present species. 



