BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER, 291 
undergoes according to sex and age, has in each country given 
rise to a nominal species. At the same time, however, that 
names were thus inconsiderately multiplied for one bird, two 
really distinct were always confounded together. Analogous 
in their changes, similar in form and plumage, it was reserved 
for the acute and ingenious Montagu to point out the differ- 
ence, and establish the two species by permanent characters. 
The new one was called by him Falco cineraceus, and is known 
by the English name of ash-coloured harrier. It is figured and 
accurately described in all its states of plumage by Vieillot in 
his “Galerie des Oiseaux,” where he has dedicated it to its 
discoverer, calling it Circus Montagut ; thus fully apologising 
for having in his article Buzzard of the ‘“ New Dictionary of 
Natural History,” declared it to be a state of the other. How 
far, however, it may be considered a compliment to change 
the name given to a species by its discoverer, in order to apply 
even his own to it, we are at a loss to imagine. 
The principal distinctive characters of the two species are 
to be found in the relative length of the wings and tail, and in 
the proportional lengths of the primaries. In the ash-coloured 
harrier, the sixth primary is shorter than the first, the second 
is much longer than the fifth, and the third is the longest ; the 
wings, when closed, reach to the tip of the tail. In the hen- 
harrier, the first primary is shorter than the sixth, the second 
subequal to the fifth, and the third equal to the fourth, the 
longest ; the wings closed, not reaching, by more than two 
inches, to the tip of the tail, which is also but slightly rounded 
in the latter, while in the ash-coloured it is cuneiform. Other 
come to the stake-nets on the Solway Firth, and eat the dead fish that 
were left there, In hunting, they pursue a regular beat or tract for 
many days together. I have repeatedly watched a bird for miles, day 
after day, follow nearly the same line, only diverging on the appearance 
of prey ; and so nearly at one time do they pass the different ranges 
of their course, that I have placed myself in cover about the time 
they were expected, often with success : if they returned at all, there was 
never more than a quarter of an hour of variance from their usual 
time.—Eb. 
