90 FALCONID.E. 



rarely, if ever, seen in hilly or mountainous countries, but 

 abounding- in such as arc level, and especially where inter- 

 spersed by marshes and level tracts, on the borders of rivers 

 and lakes. In England these birds are indigenous, and are 

 found at all seasons of the year ; but this appears not to be 

 the case much further to the north. As a summer visiter its 

 migration extends as far as Norway and Sweden, and other 

 countries in the same latitude ; but it does not remain beyond 

 the fiftieth degree of north latitude later than September or 

 October. 



The Marsh Harrier, as its name implies, frequents the 

 swampy margins of rivers and lakes, districts covered by 

 morasses, or interspersed with reeds and sedges. It seldom 

 sits stationary in one spot, like the more sluggish buzzards, 

 but remains on the wing, beating about the bushes or sedges 

 in search of food. Its flight is wavering and uncertain, but 

 slow and performed with little noise. It is seldom seen to 

 alight upon a tree, nor does it roost at night in such a situa- 

 tion, but rests itself upon the ground, or on a hillock, or 

 palings by day, and at night seeks the concealment and 

 shelter afforded by osier beds or reeds by the water side. 

 When flying, this bird may be known by its long and slender 

 wings and wavering flight. Occasionally it rises high in the 

 air, so that only an experienced eye can detect the moving 

 speck. 



The usual food of the Marsh Harrier is water birds and 

 their young, or eggs, also small mammalia, reptiles, terrestrial 

 or aquatic, -and insects. Montagu says that on the coast 

 of Carmarthenshire, where this bird is common, it feeds 

 upon young rabbits. Temminck observes that in Holland 

 it passes the winter on the downs, and lives upon the bodies, 

 of rabbits that have been killed by the stoats, and in the 

 spring supports itself upon the eggs of the wading and web- 

 footed tribes. The destruction that these birds commit 



