HEN-HARRIER. 23 



In January 1856 I saw a male Hen-Harrier cross the 

 road close before me, as I was driving between Cowfold and 

 Henfield. This was apparently a fully mature bird. 



The Hen-Harrier was formerly a regular summer visitor, 

 a few occasionally remaining through the winter, and that it 

 then bred in this county there can be no doubt ; but I can 

 find no certain evidence of its having done so of late years. 



The female and the young male, up to its second year, are 

 similar in plumage, but so unlike the adult male that many 

 formerly supposed them to be a distinct species. Montagu, 

 however, set the matter at rest, and proved that the bird 

 generally known as the Ringtail is no other than the female 

 or young male of the Hen-Harrier. 



Speaking of the boldness and rapacity of birds of prey 

 when pressed by hunger, Markwick, writing to Gilbert 

 White, in his edition of the ' Works in Natural History ' of 

 that observant Ornithologist, vol. ii. (pp. 183-183), says as 

 follows : — " When partridge-shooting with a friend, we saw 

 a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit, with some large bird in its 

 claws ; though at a great distance we both fired and obliged 

 it to drop its prey, which proved to be one of the partridges 

 which we were in pursuit of ; and lastly, in an evening, I 

 shot at and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, but 

 it being late I was obliged to go home without finding it 

 again. Next morning I walked round my land without any 

 gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my heels. When 

 I came near the field where I wounded the bird the evening 

 before, I heard the partridges call, and seeming to be much 

 disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, they all rose, 

 some on my right and some on my left hand ; and just before 

 and over my head, I perceived (though indistinctly from the 

 extreme velocity of their motion) two birds fly directly 

 against each other, when instantly, to my great astonish- 

 ment, down dropped a partridge at my feet: the dog im- 



