81 
THE HEN HARRIER. 
Ringtail. 
Circus cyaneus, Linn, (sp.) 
Falco „ „ 
Is pretty generally distributed over the island. 
In snipe-shooting, it is generally met with. The first that came 
under my own notice appeared when a friend and I were in search 
of snipes, in a boggy spot among the Belfast mountains (Antrim), 
when a female bird hovered above us in the manner of a kestrel, 
and was not alarmed by our presence, nor by that of our dogs 
engaged in “ beating ” the ground immediately beneath : — her life 
fell a sacrifice to my gun. The species is scarce there. On the 
lower skirts of these mountains, the hen harrier is still more rarely 
seen, but has been met with “ flying through the fields, and 
beating the sides of the hedges as it proceeded.” Such birds 
were immature, and occurred late in the autumn or in winter ; — 
they were probably bred at some little distance, where there is an 
extensive tract of moor. At Claggan, & c., the nests have not 
uncommonly been found among the heath. In suitable localities, 
such as prevail throughout the greater part of the county of An- 
trim, the adult birds remain during the year, and the male is 
always conspicuous from his light-coloured plumage ; — appearing, 
indeed, at first sight like a sea-gull. A sporting friend in the 
county of Londonderry informs me, that there are many “ white 
hawks ” on his mountains at Ballynascreen, whose nests, — occa- 
sionally two in the season, — he has met with in the heath. The 
hen harrier is not included in Mr. J. Y. Stewart's published 
catalogue of the birds of Donegal, but, in a letter to me from that 
gentleman, has been mentioned as a subsequent addition. When 
at “the Horn” in 1832, the gamekeeper alluded to his having 
the winter before, seen a “ white hawk ” strike a curlew ( Nume - 
Ylius arquata ) in passing, and break its wing, which so disabled 
the bird that it became an easy capture to my informant. About 
Bogay, in that county, old male birds are said to be frequently 
VOL. I. Gr 
