FALCONIDE. 315 
THE MARSH-HARRIER. 
Circus £RucINOsus (Linneus). 
This species, known as the Moor-Buzzard so long as ‘moor’ 
retained a signification allied to ‘mire’ or ‘marsh,’ can now be 
barely included among our indigenous birds. The principal cause 
of its decrease in England has been the drainage of the fens in 
the eastern districts, and the reclamation of the marshy wastes in 
Somerset, Dorset, Shropshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and some other 
counties, where it used to breed until within the last thirty or forty 
years. Sometimes a pair or two attempt to rear their broods in the 
Broad-district of Norfolk, but are rarely, if ever, allowed to succeed, 
and I know of no other county in which this Harrier has recently 
nested ; though migrants from the Continent occur in spring and 
autumn, reaching Western England and Wales. In Scotland the 
Marsh-Harrier is very rare, even in the Solway district which is not 
altogether unsuited to its habits ; the only example Booth ever saw 
was an immature bird in East Lothian; single instances are on 
record from Dumbartonshire as well as from Scalpa, near Skye; 
Mr. Macleay of Inverness has received but one in all his long 
experience ; Mr. G. Sim of Aberdeen tells me that only a solitary 
