ASH-COLOURED HARRIER. 235 
abundance is not nearly to be compared with that 
of its nearly allied congener; and Mr Gould states 
that it is common in the fens of Cambridgeshire 
and Lincolnshire.* The habits of the two birds, 
so far as we know, are very similar, — the same 
gliding buoyant flight, and low manner of hunting 
along the ground, surveying the cover, and occa- 
sionally hovering to examine some likely spot. 
The nest is also similar. That discovered by 
Mr Tucker was made on the ground among 
furze. Temminck remarks, that it breeds in the 
vicinity of marshes and lakes abounding with 
reeds ; and more lately, in his Supplement, that it 
is very common in the marshes of Holland, much 
more so than the Common Harrier. European 
.peeimens of the male and female in our posses- 
sions may be thus described : — 
The upper parts, throat, and breast of the male, 
dark blackish grey, darkest on the back and shoul- 
ders ; first six quills nearly black, greyish at the 
tips, the seventh lighter in tint, and the others fol- 
lowing it becoming paler still ; secondaries of a 
pale blackish grey, marked across the centre with 
a clouded black bar ; tail lengthened, pale grey, 
centre feathers uniform in tint, the others grey 
on the outer webs, and marked with clouded bars 
across the inner, nearly black on the first pair, 
Birds of Europe. 
