Harriers. RAPACES. FALCO. 95 
streaked with brown. Upon the ridge of the wing, a patch 
of straw-yellow. ‘The rest of the body of dark umber-brown, 
passing upon the belly into reddish-brown. Legs long, the 
tarsi slender, and, together with the toes, yellow. Claws 
black. The male, taken at the same time, is rather inferior yfale bird. 
im size, and of an uniform umber-brown colour, with the ex- 
ception of a small spot of the straw-yellow upon the occiput. 
And in him the irides are yellow. 
The young differ from the adult birds in being without 
the straw-yellow upon the head or wing-coverts. Varieties Varieties. 
of this species, with more or less white, are also frequently 
found. 
I kept one of these birds in confinement for some years, in 
which the throat, bastard wing, the first four quill-feathers, 
and the outer tail-feathers, were of a pure white. ‘The rest 
of its plumage was of dark umber. brown. 
Marshy districts and moors are the favourite haunts of this Food. 
species. ‘They prey on wild ducks, and other water-fow], 
young game, leverets, and water rats. Lizards and frogs 
also form a great portion of their food; and they will some- 
times take perch, and other kinds of fish. 
Their flight is slow, and generally near the ground ; but Flight. 
during the season of incubation, the males will soar to a con- 
siderable height, and remain suspended in the air for a long 
interval of time. They build in the tall tufts of grass or 
rushes which grow in marshy places, and lay four or five 
round eggs, entirely white; and not spotted with brown, as 
asserted in the Index Ornithologicus of Latuam. 
These birds abound in all the marshy districts of England Locality: 
and Scotland, and, according to Monracu, are very nume- 
rous in Wales, where they prey upon the rabbits that inha- 
bit the sand-banks of the shores of Caermarthenshire. 
The same writer observes, that he has seen no less than 
nine feeding together upon the carcase of a sheep. 
In Holland they are of course numerous, from the nature 
of the country ; and rare in Switzerland. 
