HEN HARRIER. 



99 



and white chequered feathers. The beak is black ; the cere 

 pale yellow ; the iris of the eyes, and the legs bright yellow. 



The female of the Hen Harrier, commonly called the 

 Ringtail, is altogether different in colour. She has the crown 

 of the head, neck, back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts 

 dusky, bordered with rufous brown ; the primary and second- 

 ary quill-feathers, tertials, and larger wing-coverts are dusky, 

 and slightly barred above, but beneath the bars are very con- 

 spicuous, being on a white, or greyish- white ground. The 

 middle feathers of the tail are dusky ash, with three or four 

 broad dark bars ; the side feathers of the tail are white, tinged 

 with rufous, and barred with dusky or rufous brown ; the 

 upper coverts of the tail white. Breast, sides, under parts, 

 and thighs, are white, broadly streaked down the shafts of the 

 feathers with rufous brown. 



The ruff round the neck is very conspicuous, and is com- 

 posed of feathers mottled with dusky and white : the under 

 coverts of the wings are reddish white, with dark centres to 

 the feathers. Above and below the eye is a white line, and 

 the chin is also white. Iris, cere, and legs, as in the male. 

 The young nearly resemble the female. The chief difference 

 is in the ground colour of the under parts, which is in the 

 young reddish-yellow instead of white. 



The following dimensions were taken from a specimen of 

 an adult male bird. The beak, from the forehead to the tip, 

 eleven lines and a half; from the gape to the tip, one inch 

 one line and a half. Tarsus two inches three lines ; quill- 

 feathers of the tail nine inches ; the wing, from the carpus to 

 the tip, thirteen inches three lines ; the inner and hinder 

 claws eight lines. The tail extends two inches beyond 

 the tips of the closed wings. The male measures in entire 

 length about eighteen inches and a half, and weighs thirteen 

 ounces. 



The female, or Ringtail, exceeds the male considerably in 



