appears to be more numerous in the southern counties; and according to Montagu it is the most common 
of the Falcon trihe ahont the sandy flats of Caernarvonshire, in Wales. Respecting its still breeding 
with us, Mr. Stevenson says that the localities selected for this purpose are almost entirely confined to 
Ramworth, Barton, Horsey, and Hickling, where the shriek of the railway-whistle has not yet scared them 
from their natural haunts. In the above districts a few pairs of the Marsh-Harrier, as I learn from the 
most reliable sources, remain throughout the year; and I feel justified, therefore, in still retaining 
the Moor-Buzzard, as this species is frequently termed, in the list of residents, whilst at the same time 
I believe that some migratory specimens occur at times. A nest with three young ones was taken near 
Yarmouth, in the summer of 1862. It is more or less numerous, according to the nature of the localities, 
in all the temperate parts of Europe. Lord Lilford tells us that it is “ perhaps the most abundant of the 
Raptorial Birds in European Turkey and Greece. From two to a dozen were almost always to he seen in 
every marsh in Epirus, Acarnania, Albania, and Corfu. Very few remain there to breed, the main body 
making its appearance in the beginning of November and disappearing in March. I once counted twenty-six 
on the wing together near Butrinto.” North Africa as well as Europe is included in the area of range of the 
Marsh-Harrier, as are also Egypt and all other countries thence to India, where, according to Mr. Jerdon, 
it “ is very generally spread, frequenting banks of rivers, lakes, marshes, and inundated fields, or wet 
meadow land, occasionally hunting overgrass or dry grain-fields. It feeds chiefly on frogs, fish, water-insects, 
rats, shrews, and various young or weakly birds. It not unfrequently carries off wounded snipe, and even 
teal, and often follows the sportsman.” An old sporting friend assured Mr. Thompson that “ he had often 
seen the Marsh-Harrier ‘ quarter ’ its ground like a setting dog, as the Hen-Harrier is well known to 
do, and that he considers its performance in this way equal to that of the latter species.” 
Much difference occurs in the colouring of the plumage of this species during the first few years of its 
existence ; and several must elapse before it attains the perfect state represented in my first Plate ; hut it is 
evident that the bird breeds long before this state of plumage is acquired, since we seldom see a specimen 
thus attired in our islands. Mr. J. H. Gurney is, I believe, inclined to think that the chocolate-coloured birds 
represented with a snake, in the foreground of my second Plate, are old females ; in that case very young 
males will most likely resemble the female. The bird sitting on its nest is probably a male that has not yet 
attained its fully adult garb ; still this is a point in the history of the Marsh-Harrier that yet requires 
determination, but which can only be satisfactorily ascertained by observers in the countries where it is still 
plentiful. 
“ The eggs of the Marsh-Harrier,” says Mr. Hewitson “ are most commonly white, hut sometimes spotted ; 
and all those I have seen, upon the identity of which reliance could be placed, are considerably less than 
those of the common Buzzard. The bird almost always breeds on the ground, but will sometimes build in 
the fork of a large tree ; in such a situation the nest would be formed of sticks and such-like materials. 
In the fen countries, its usual resort, the nest is composed of so large a quantity of flags, reeds, and sedges, 
as to raise it a foot, or a foot and a half above the ground. The eggs are usually four, sometimes, though 
not often, five in number; the time of incubation early in May. 
In the adult male the head, cheeks, and nape of the neck are tawny yellow, tinged with rufous on the 
crown and ears, and streaked with dark brown ; facial disk yellowish-white and brown ; back, wing-coverts, 
and tertiaries dark reddish-brown, with lighter margins ; primaries brownish black ; secondaries and tail 
ash-grey ; thighs, abdomen, and under tail-coverts deep rufous ; hill bluish black ; cere, irides, legs, and feet 
yellow ; claws black. 
During the first year the plumage is chocolate-brown, each feather tipped with lighter reddish brown, 
and the irides are of a darker colour than in the adult ; crown, sides of the face, and throat, delicate buff ; 
gape and sides of the hill and lores blue. 
My Plates represent the Marsh-Harrier in the states of plumage above described, about two-thirds of the 
size of life. The snake is the Coluber natrix of Linnaeus, the Common Snake of our island. 
