182 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



The term ' glead ' has not been restricted to the present species, 

 but the local circumstances show conclusively that a Harrier 

 was the species met with. It has already been remarked that 

 the younger Hey sham was in the habit of applying for specimens 

 to persons in the Alston district. William Dodd wrote to him 

 from Alston, on May 22, 1831: 'The person who chiefly 

 supplies me with what I send you, while in search of a Dottrel 

 nest, had the good fortune to meet with the nest of a Hen 

 Harrier with one egg, which he supposes was laid on Friday 

 last. Now if you have a particular desire to have the eggs 

 sent, you must write by return of carrier, but if you want the 

 cock bird, you must wait till they have young, as it is nearly 

 impossible, I understand, to get at him before that time.' On 

 the 30th of May in the same year Dodd writes again : ' "With 

 this day's carrier I have sent you the female of the Hen Harrier 

 and the eggs belonging to her, the last of which I suppose 

 would be laid last Wednesday.' But the male Harrier was also 

 secured, as Dodd states in a letter of June 17th : ' He last night 

 brought me the Cock Bird of the Ring Tail, which appeared to 

 me not to have a wrong feather about him. . . It seems there are 

 other gentn. collecting birds and eggs in Northumberland and 

 Durham, who would like to have had both birds and eggs of 

 the inclosed [Harrier], but nothing wd. induce him to part with 

 them, otherwise than to me, though they certainly offered him 

 more than I thought they were worth. . . . P.S. — The inclosed 

 was killed yesterday morning.' 



The Hen Harrier continued to breed for a few years at any 

 rate near Alston, because J. Borrow writes from Alston, July 6th, 

 1835 : ' I have seen both the Merlin and Hen harrier, but have 

 not been so fortunate as to fall in with either of their nests as 

 yet.' In the west of Cumberland the Harrier was already 

 scarce. Mr. Hodgson wrote from Corney, Sept. 28, 1844: 'John 

 Borrowdale has obtained a Ring-tail hawk, the female to the 

 Hen Harrier. They were plentiful in this neighbourhood forty 

 years ago [i.e. about 1804], my uncle has known different nests in 

 our own woods, yet the last I saw flying in Corney upwards of 

 twenty years ago.' This brings us to a period within the 

 personal recollection of Captain Johnson, who has repeatedly 





