HEN HARRIER. 95 



RA PTORES. FALC0NTD1E. 



PLATE XIX. 



HEN HARRIER. 



Circus cyaneus. (Flem.) 



To Montagu we are indebted for the elucidation of many 

 difficult and obscure points in this branch of natural history ; 

 and as his field of study was nature, the only certain guide, 

 and the deductions he so clearly details are open to the in- 

 vestigation of every one interested in the subject, perfect 

 confidence may be placed in the result of his observations. 



Before the publication of his remarks in the Linnsean 

 Transactions, the history of our English Harriers was in- 

 volved in inextricable confusion, and the existence of a third 

 distinct species, now well known as Montagu's Harrier, does 

 not appear to have been even suspected. On the other hand, 

 the Hen Harrier had been by various authors multiplied into 

 several species, inaccurately founded upon the different ap- 

 pearances presented by the male, female, and young. All 

 these difficulties were satisfactorily reconciled by the persever- 

 ing investigations of this distinguished naturalist, from whose 

 observations we shall freely quote, offering no apology to our 

 readers for so doing, since the information contained in them 

 is the best of its kind. " I undertook," he says, " the care 

 of three young Hen Harriers found in a nest in a furze bush, 

 and only covered with white down. At this time the two 

 largest had thrown out many feathers, sufficient to discover 

 the plumage of the Ringtail approaching ; the other, by its 



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