ARGENTINE HEN-HARRIER 43 



ARGENTINE HEN-HARRIER 



Circus cinereus 



Above light Uuish grey with darker mottlings ; primaries blackish ; 

 tail grey with four black cross bands and tipped with white ; beneath 

 thicUy banded with white and rufous bats ; bill black, eyes and feet 

 yellow; length 18, wing 12 inches. Female larger; above dark 

 brown, with light brown spots. 



There are two species of Harriers in Argentina, the 

 Broad-winged Harrier, C. macropterus, with a black 

 upper and white lower plumage, and the present 

 species, named Cinereous Harrier in Argentine Orni- 

 thology, but I prefer now to call it the Argentine 

 Hen-Harrier, as at a distance it closely resembles 

 the European Hen-Harrier, although a handsomer 

 bird. 



This hawk is found throughout the Argentine 

 Republic, and is also common in Patagonia and the 

 Falkland Islands. On the pampas it is, I think, the 

 most common bird of prey, after the excessively 

 abundant Milvago chimango. Like the Chimango 

 it also prefers an open unwooded country, and 

 resembles that bird not a little in its general appear- 

 ance, and when in the brown stage of plumage may 

 be easily mistaken for it. In the Falklands it has 

 even acquired the Carrion Hawk's habits, for Darwin 

 distinctly saw one feeding on a carcase there, very 

 much to his surprise. On the pampas I have always 

 found it a diligent bird-hunter, and its usual mode 

 of proceeding is to drive up the bird from the grass 



