HEN-HARRIER. 
141 
it as far as he could see, and so again, day by day, 
sometimes for five miles, until he arrived at the nest and 
shot the old birds." 
The bird is mentioned also in Longcroft's " Hundred of 
Bosmere," published in 1857. 
Bury, writing in 1 844,^ says that the hen-harrier was not 
uncommon in the Isle of Wight, and had been known 
to breed in Bordwood Forest, in the parish of New- 
church. 
Wise, in 1862,2 says it has become much more numerous 
of late in the New Forest, and no less than six or seven 
pairs were trapped last year, and he gives the following 
graphic account of this species — " In 1859 a nest con- 
taining three young birds was found near Picket Post by 
a woodman, and another in 1862, with three eggs, on 
Beaulieu Heath. 
" One of the forest keepers described the fern for some 
distance round the nest, which he discovered, as completely 
trodden down by the young birds, and so littered with 
feathers and dirt that, to use his own words, the place had 
exactly the appearance of a goose-pen. 
" A woodman, too, who in i860 was set to watch a pair 
near Ocknell, gave me an interesting account of his seeing 
the old birds breaking off the young tops of the fern 
to form their nest. I have never myself been fortunate 
enough in the forest to find their nest, but I have often 
watched a pair on Black Knoll and Beaulieu Heath 
skimming over the ground, pausing to hover just above 
the furze, then flying forward for some ten or twenty 
yards, turning themselves suddenly sideways ; and then 
again for a minute, poising, kestrel-like, beating each bush, 
"•Zoologist." 1844. « "New Forest." 1862. 
