BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
This species nests in central and southern Europe, and 
tliose birds that have bred in the northern parts migrate 
to the countries bordering the Mediterranean, and appear 
as far south as Abyssinia. 
THE HEN-HARRIER. Circus cyaneus (Linnaeus). 
Local names— Common Harrier; Ringtail; Ring- 
tailed Hawk. 
Formerly common and resident ; now a very rare visitor. 
Writing of the Hen-Harrier in his account of the birds of 
Cumberland, John Heysham notes that the Duke of 
Buccleuch's gamekeeper "has destroyed some hundreds, 
and has frequently shot both male and female from the 
same nest."* This information referring to the last years 
of the eighteenth century shows how numerous these 
birds once were locally, and also that the days of their 
persecution had commenced. In 1832 Sir WiUiam Jardine 
wrote of the Hen-Harrier, in a Ust of birds of the parish of 
Applegarth and Sibbaldbie : " After the season of incu- 
bation it leaves the hills, and with its brood visits the low 
country daily, roosting among whins and long heather."! 
In his Naturalises Library he gives a full account of the 
nests and habits of the Hen-Harrier, but he does not 
state whether these observations were made in or out of 
Dumfriesshire.^ In A Catalogue of the Birds contained in the 
collection of Sir William Jardine two specimens are 
entered as obtained at Jardine Hall.§ 
Till the middle of the nineteenth century the Hen- 
Harrier was undoubtedly abundant on all our mosses and 
* Hist, and Antiq. Cumb., 1794, Vol. I., p. 6. 
t New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., p. 178. 
t Nat. Lib., 1838, Vol. IX., pp. 229-231. 
§ Cat. Birds in Coll. Sir W. J., p. 9 (339), a. a. 
