300 BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 
It breeds in open wastes, frequently in thick furze coverts, 
among reeds, marshy bushes, the low branches of trees, but 
cenerally on the ground. The nest is built of sticks, reeds, 
straw, leaves, and similar materials heaped together, and is 
lined with feathers, hair, or other soft substances; it contains 
from three to six, but generally four or five, pale bluish-white 
eggs, large and round at each end; the young are born covered 
with white down, to which succeed small feathers of a rust 
colour, varied with brown and black. If any one approaches 
the nest during the period of rearing the young, the parents 
evince the greatest alarm, hovering around, and expressing 
their anxiety by repeating the syllables, geg, geg, gag ; or ge, 
ge, ne, ge, ge. Crows manifest a particular hostility to this 
species, and destroy numbers of their nests. 
The hen-harrier is widely spread over both continents, per- 
haps more than any other land-bird, though it is nowhere 
remarkably numerous. In the northern countries of America 
it is a migratory species, extending its wanderings from Florida 
to Hudson’s Bay. It is not known to breed in the northern, 
or even in the middle States, where the adults are but rarely 
seen. In the southern parts of the Union, and especially in 
Florida, they are rather common, in all their varieties of 
plumage. The species is also found in the West Indies, 
Cayenne, and probably has an extensive range in South 
America. It is found throughout Britain, Germany, Italy, 
the north of Africa, and the northern portion of Asia. It is 
very common in France and the Netherlands, is found in 
Russia and Sweden, but does not inhabit the north of Norway, 
being by no means an arctic bird. It is again met with in 
the southern parts of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope, 
and is not uncommon all along the eastern coast of that con- 
tinent. In Switzerland, and other mountainous countries, it 
is of very rare occurrence. 
