38 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



known as the "blue hawk," and the female 

 as the " ringtail." The two figures on the 

 plate are from specimens in my own collec- 

 tion. 



Immature males resemble the females in 

 colour, but begin to change the second year. 



The young are at first covered with white 

 down. Some years ago I saw four which 

 had been taken from a nest, and the old 

 ones killed, in North-west Yorkshire. 



Varieties. — I never saw a variety of this 

 species. 



Note — The note is described by Morris 

 as being " loud and clear, resembling in 

 some degree that of the Kestrel." 



Flight — The flight of the Hen Harrier, 

 like the rest of the genus, is low, sweeping 

 over the surface of the ground in a kind of 

 hunting fashion, hence probably the name 

 Harriers. They are said occasionally to 

 soar aloft like many others of this family. 



Migration. — This species seems to be 

 partially migratory, being of more frequent 

 occurrence in the autumn. 



Food. — The Hen Harrier feeds upon 

 game, thrushes, larks, and all kinds of small 

 birds, rabbits, young hares, and other small 

 mammals. Dr. Saxby states that in hard 

 weather it resorts to the sea coast in search 

 of sandpipers, &c., and small fish, as he has 

 proved by dissection. It also seems fond of 

 eggs, snakes, lizards, and other reptiles, 

 twenty lizards having been taken from a 

 single bird. The meaning of the Lap name 

 given above is "frog hawk." showing that 

 the same habit obtains there. 



In confinement they may be treated 

 similar to the other birds of prey. 



Habitat. — Formerly this was rather a 

 a common species in many parts of Britain, 

 but now, alas ! it is much rarer. It occurs 

 occasionally all over England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. A few pairs, I believe, still breed 

 in England, but their numbers are decreas- 

 ing every year. 



Abroad it is found over all the flat districts 

 of Europe, principally in the south, and in 

 North Africa ; also as a winter visitor to 

 Asia Minor, Palestine, India, and China. 



Nest. — The nest is placed upon or near 

 the ground, generally upon a waste or moor, 

 among furze bushes or heather. It is com- 

 posed of sticks of small size, coarse grass, 

 heather, hay, and wool. 



Eggs. — Four or five eggs are laid, in 

 some rare instances six. They should be 

 looked for the first or second week in May. 

 Their colour is pale bluish white ; in some 

 cases, but very seldom, slightly spotted with 

 red. There must be some error in the 

 statement in Bewick that the eggs are 

 sometimes reddish with white spots, pro- 

 bably it should have been reversed, viz., eggs 

 white, sometimes with reddish spots. 



RANDOM NOTES ON 

 REPTILES. 



By J. Osborne. 



Tadpoles and Frogs. 

 I think it is in the " Vestiges of Creation " 

 that a statement is made that if tadpoles 

 are shut up in a vessel from which they 

 cannot escape, but through which the water 

 has free ingress and egress, and the vessel 

 sunk at the bottom of a pond or slow stream, 

 the tadpoles will not develope into frogs, 

 but will grow into tadpoles of very large 

 size. On what authority the statement is 

 made I have no idea, but so far as my ex- 

 perience goes, it is not true. At the time 

 we had the aquarium at home I have already 

 spoken of, I introduced on one occasion a 

 number of tadpoles. They grew well, and 

 soon begun to develope their legs and the 

 tail to appear less. The vulgar idea seems 

 to be that the tail is absorbed into the body 

 again, but I was satisfied that it gradually 

 "scaled away." More than once I noticed 

 small filmy pieces at the edges as if they 



