u 
FALCONID.-E. 
THE HEN HAEKIER. 
Circus cyancus. 
It must be by an oversight on the part of Mr Dunn that the 
Hen Harrier finds no place in his account of the birds of 
Orkney and Shetland, for in his time it was not uncommon. 
Its omission from the catalogues of the older writers may 
probably be attributed to the accommodating Goshawk, whose 
name was made to suit every large hawk of doubtful species. 
Thomas Edmondston, with his usual acuteness of observa- 
tion, did not fail to recognise it, but from the fact of its being 
of less frequent occurrence in his native island (Gnst), he 
was led to infer that it was somewhat rare, and that the fact of 
its breeding in Shetland was doubtful. In the winters of 1869- 
70 and 1870-71, it was much more numerous than it had been 
for some years previously. I have occasionally seen the eggs, 
and once found a nest in the island of Yell, situated among 
some rather tall heather, and containing four eggs, three of 
which were nearly white, although the fourth was rather more 
spotted than the one represented in Mr Hewitson’s work. 
They were deposited upon a few blades of dry grass, in a 
hollow which had been scraped away for the purpose. This 
was at the end of the third week in May. Its near relation- 
ship to the owls is as evident in the colour of the eggs, and its 
general structure and appearance, as in its somewhat low, 
buoyant flight, and its owl-like manner of dropping softly upon 
its prey, although it will sometimes pursue even a large bird in 
open flight and captur(3 it on wing. 
The golden plover is a very favourite article of food, but it is 
fond of resorting to the flirm-yards for the sake of procuring 
small birds, or even chickens, though it is rather shy of the 
latter, being in great dread of their natural formidable pro- 
tectress. In hard weather it is often seen upon the shore at 
low water, not only in search of snipes and tringae, but also of 
small fish, as I have clearly ascertained by dissection. As a 
rule, it remains longei' in one neighbourhood than the Marsh 
