HEN-IIAR RIER. 
CIRCUS CYAXEUS. 
Though by no means an exceedingly rare species, the Hen-Harrier can scarcely be termed common at the 
present date in any part of the British Islands I have visited. A few pairs may still be found scattered over 
the flat moors of Sutherland and Boss- shire ; I have also met with several nests in different parts of 
Caithness. In Inverness it seems less common ; and in Perthshire not more than half a dozen specimens have 
come under my observation. Among the Hebrides it appears, from the information I gathered from keepers 
and shepherds, to be found in considerable numbers, though I failed to notice more than two or three single 
birds in the Long Island. I have seen one or two beating over the Yorkshire moors in the neighbourhood of 
Whitby, also in Cumberland near Penrith. The broad-district of Norfolk, the fens of Cambridge, and the 
marshes and furze-covered downs of Sussex are also at times frequented by this species; females,’ however, 
and immature specimens are most commonly met with. I have never observed a full-plumaged male further 
south than Norfolk. 
Several writers assert that this Harrier has been distinctly observed to make an attack upon Grouse and 
Partridges. Unless the bird had been seen in the act of capturing its prey, I should be inclined to believe that 
it must have picked up some of the victims struck down by the Peregrine. Small birds, such as Larks and 
Pipits, together with mice, and even frogs appear to be its most natural food; it will also, I imagine carrv 
off the unfledged young of Partridges and Land-Bails. I never detected the remains of such pre°v at their 
nestmg-quarters, though I frequently watched a pair hunting over a marshy hay-field in the Hi»hlands wUd 
was the resort o, a brood or two of Partridges and at least a dozen pairs of Land-Hails 1 was never r 
enough to determine exactly, even by the aid of powerful glasses, the nature of the prey they eaZeT b 
ne or two occasions it appeared to be either a dark-eoloured field-mouse or, wh^t Zar m„Z b’n 
downy young of the Corn-Crake. 1 0 P roba ble, the 
mhabttllZjlZrtnlZZ^r^ ** ^ «**»* they 
that these birds disappear entirely from the north on Z “h Z lmma ‘ Ur0 ^ 1 haY ° heard il 
incorrect. I was informed by a tee™ >”1^ TT 1 ™ Maed is 
in perfect plumage during very severe weather hi Glen Aiferie n- ^ had ,l ° tlCOd t ' Y ° fino old malos 
usual haunts on the moors worn deeply e^Z witt “l Z ? Z ***“* *» *"*■ Their 
m order to procure food. When mint «■„„„• , . ’ 1 they were probably driven to the low ground 
male, apparently in change of plumage^hunthfo T ^ ° n L ° Ch Shin ’ iu Sut herland, I observed a 
The females I Have seldom recoUdli — ive 
constructed of smLThl'^S^ C^BhfiueW^’ f **** 1 in t,1G "orth were 
thGyWerC ^ 
