MONTAGIPS HARRIER. 
145 
the meadows .... not far from the river, when I saw 
a large hawk flying towards me, and it settled upon an 
elevation at no great distance, — so near, in fact, that I 
could see its plumage very distinctly. Next day .... 
and for several consecutive days its presence was to me 
a source of pleasure. I then lost sight of it for a week 
or ten days, when a gamekeeper brought a bird which 
he had trapped whilst in the act of eating a leveret, 
which I have every reason to suppose was the specimen 
I had previously observed, and it proved to be a female 
of Montagu's harrier. Since then I have seen several 
others, especially males, at the bird-stuffers' in neighbouring 
towns, and during the spring of 1874 I was highly gratified 
at seeing two, if not three, pairs in the New Forest, where 
the species undoubtedly breeds most seasons, although 
I have never heard of its eggs being found About 
the middle of May a gamekeeper trapped two pairs of 
them, and I did not see the others afterwards." 
One of our historic nests is that discovered by Mr. 
Howard Saunders on the furze-covered down above Ventnor 
on May 30th, 1875. There were three eggs in the nest, and 
another was laid later. One young bird from this nest 
was reared and remained in Captain Hadfield's possession 
for six or seven weeks, when it was sent to the Zoological 
Gardens. 
The finding of the nest was recorded in the " Field " ; 
in the " Zoologist " for 1875, Hadfield minutely describes 
the different stages of plumage of the young bird, and 
its habits in the nest and in captivity. 
Colonel Irby informed us that he found the nest in the 
New Forest in the same year, and that the bird also came 
every year to a certain district in the north-east of the 
county, where Captain Savile Reid found its nest in 1878. 
