COMMON HARRIER. 
231 
•we have found them perching, but even during 
the day they rested mostly on the ground, and 
only when alarmed rose to the cross bars. We 
have never seen them perch in a wild state.” 
On the English commons or wastes, where 
these birds also breed, the nest is placed in a 
situation as near as the locality will admit, to 
that just described. The cover there is generally 
furze or whin instead of heath ; and thus Mon- 
tague describes the nest “ composed of sticks 
rudely put together, was nearly flat, and placed 
on some fallen branches of furze, that supported it 
just above the ground.”* Of the nest of the Ame- 
rican bird, Dr Richardson writes, — “ The nests, 
we observed, were built on the ground by the 
sides of small lakes, of moss, grass, feathers, and 
hair, and contained from three to five eggs, 
having a bluish white colour, without spots.”f 
We have never seen more than the above number 
of eggs ; but Dr Heysham records having seen 
six in one nest, or seven in another.f Temminck 
places this species in his list of European birds 
which he has received from Japan. 
The adult male has the upper parts bluish grey, 
passing into blackish grey on the centre of the 
back, and to pearl grey on the throat and breast ; 
quills black, with pale tips ; tail, pale blackish 
* Diet. Supp. t Northern Zoology, II. 55. 
t Hutchinson’s Cumberland. 
