144 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
Simeon's estate, and then in the possession of Mr. J. B. 
Tuttiett. 
The first specimens recognized on the mainland appear 
to be a pair shot at Newton Valence by a Mr. Eames, 
in May, 1850, as mentioned in a footnote in Bell's edition 
of White's " Selborne." Judging from the date, they must 
have been nesting. 
More next records one brought to Rogers, of Freshwater, 
in August, 1858, and Wise, writing about the year 1862, 
says that " Mr. Hart has, during the last twenty years, 
received three or four specimens to stuff—one in the winter 
of 1 86 1. Mr. Farren saw a male bird, April, 1861." 
If the above " three or four" represent the comparative 
rarity of the bird, its rapid increase during the next twenty 
years is remarkable. We conclude, however, that on the 
decrease of its larger and more powerful relative, the 
hen-harrier, as a breeding species, there has been a 
corresponding increase of Montagu's harrier, whose habits 
and habitat are similar ; and the fact of its visiting us 
only during the summer, or " close season," would help 
to protect it. 
There is a pair with their nest in the Hart collection, 
dated July lOth, 1871. 
Mr. Corbin's first acquaintance with the species appears 
to date from some years prior to 1875, ^oi* he writes in 
the " Zoologist " for that year — " Several years ago a 
gentleman sent me a hawk — with pale dove-like back, 
and prettily marked belly and thighs, but at that time 
I was totally ignorant of its name or value, but I have 
since discovered that it was a small male Montagu's 
harrier. It was obtained on a heath near here, close 
to the borders of Dorset, where a pair had built the 
previous summer. One day in May, 1871, I was in 
