3 Ifi Remarks on Falco cyaneus and pygargus, 



linutd in obscurity, must, to those not in the habit of inves- 

 tigating nature, appear very extraordinary ; but the scruti- 

 nizing ornithologist will recollect how few opportunities oc- 

 cur of proving, or -controverting, a generally received opi- 

 nion by ocular demonstration. Upon the present subject 

 the mind of the scientific world has been so extremely 

 oscillatory for want of proof, that most authors have re- 

 lated the opinions of others, or reasoned from concurring 

 circumstances blended with parole evidence. In fact, it 

 must be confessed, that although I had many reasons for 

 believing the Hen Harrier, Falco" cyaneus, and Ringtail, 

 Falco pygargus, to be the same species, yet I could not ad- 

 duce any Well-authenticated proof that this was really the 

 fact, when the Ornithological Dictionary was published. 

 It is true that I was assured by a most worthy and scientific 

 clergyman in Sussex, that the gamekeeper of general Pres- 

 cott, in whose neighbourhood he resided, had actually shot 

 both these birdi from the same nest, and that thev had both 

 been preserved in one case, and were in the general's pos- 

 session. That my friend gave implicit credit to the keeper's 

 assertion I could not have the least doubt : but as I had 

 been assured from another quarter, that not only the male 

 and female Hen Harrier had been shot, which belonged to 

 the same nest, but that the young which could just fly were 

 also killed, and were of the same cinereous-gray colour as 

 the parent birds ; Who, perplexed with such opposite as- 

 sertions, could determine ? But, to close this discordancy, 

 I shall transcribe a passage from the latest publication on 

 ornithology exclusively, that has appeared in this country, 

 except the Second Supplement to the General Synopsis. The 

 author's words are these : " It has been supposed that this 

 and the following (relating to the two birds in question) are 

 male and female ; but the repeated instances of Hen Harriers 

 of both sexes having been seen, leave it beyond all doubt, 

 that ihey constitute two distinct species." 



Such a strong unqualified assertion appearing on public 

 record, stamped with the authority of the author without 

 reference to the nature of the proof, should seem to pro- 

 ceed from personal knowledge : and ab the only positive proof 



to 



