MONTAGU’S HARRIER. 15 
MONTAGU’S HARRIER. 
Circus cingeRaceus, Mont. 
PL. IV., fig. 4. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally, with the exception of the more 
northern countries ; in Africa as far south as the Cape and the Comoro 
Islands, and in Asia as far east as China; in Great Britain it is less 
numerous than formerly, and local; if it breeds in Scotland it must be 
very rare. 
Food.—Frogs, reptiles, small birds, water rats, and sometimes 
young hares and partridges. 
Nest.—A mere hollowin the ground, with an outer border of heather- 
twigs and a lining of dry grass and sedge laid loosely together. 
Position of nest.—In clearings amongst furze. 
Number of eggs.—4-5; rarely 6. 
Time of nidification—V-VI; May, 
The nest of this species is much less perfect than that 
of the two other species, and, in fact, hardly deserves the 
name; as with several other birds of prey, incubation 
frequently begins as soon as the first egg is laid. 
It is believed that this bird still breeds sparingly in 
Pembrokeshire, Somerset, Dorset, Kent and Norfolk, but 
that there is no county in Great Britain in which it can 
now be said to breed regularly ; in some counties where it 
used to abound it has now become an irregular autumn 
migrant. 
Mr. Seebohm thus describes the discovery of a nest of 
this bird in a rye-field near Germany :—‘ The rye stood 
more than five feet high in a field which could not be much 
less than a hundred acres in extent. It seemed like look- 
ing for a needle in a haystack; but our host and guide told 
us that several pairs of Harriers bred annually on his farm ; 
so we walked down each side of the rye, one of us following 
a narrow path up the centre. We saw at different times 
five or six birds, one pair especially seeming to show 
some anxiety at our presence. Finally one of the birds 
dropped somewhat suddenly into the waving corn; Dr. 
Blasius undertook to stalk her up, but, when she rose, 
missed her with both barrels. We were, however, delighted 
to find that she had risen from her nest containing four 
fresh eggs. There was no hole whatever in the ground ; 
the rye had only been trampled down, and a slight but 
somewhat neat nest made of corn stalks, lined with a little 
dry straw. The nest was rather more than nine inches in 
diameter, and about two inches and a half deep in the 
middle.” (Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. 1, p. 182.) 
