“ Wlu'ii flying from one place to another, without searching the grouiul, it moA^es with considerable rapidity, 
at such a height as to clear the trees and other elevated objects without deviating. It is not known, hoAvever, 
to soar to a great height. On obtaining its prey it usually devours it on the spot, carrying it off only when it 
judges that it is liable to be molested. When satiated, it retires to some quiet place, or perches on a wall, a 
stone, or a stump, until digestion is advanced. In its rambles it searches the cultivated fields and pastures, 
but in summer and autumn is ])artial to heaths and commons ; and in such places it reposes at night and rears 
its young. Although nowhere very common, it is generally dis[)ersed, and in some districts pretty numerous, 
in the breeding-season. In Scotland it betakes itself to the hilly tracts and moors from the middle of Sj)ring 
to the end of autumn, but in winter frequents the lower cultivated districts. It is a permanent resident, and 
does not appear to recewe any accession of numbers, or to undergo any periodical diminution.” 
Like Macgillivray, I have never had the good fortune to find its nest. I shall therefore transcribe a very 
valuable account of its breeding given by Sir William Jardine. 
“ In a country possessing a considerable portion of plain and mountain, where I have had the greatest 
opportunities of attending to them, they always retire at the commencement of the breeding-season to the 
wildest hills ; and during this time not one individual will be found in the low country. For several days 
before commencing their nest the male and female are seen soaring about, as in search of or examining a 
proper situation, are very noisy, and toy and cuff each other in the air. AFhen the site is fixed, and the nest 
conqfleted, the female is left alone, and,, when hatching, will not suffer the male to visit the nest, but on his 
approach rises and drives him with screams to a distance! The nest is very frequently made in a heath- 
bush by the side of some ravine, and is composed of sticks, with a very slender lining. It is sometimes 
formed on one of tliose places called scars, or where there has been a rut on the side of a steep hill after a 
mountain thunder-shower; here little or no nest is made, and the eggs are laid on the bare earth, Avhich has 
been scraped hollow. In a flat or level country some common is generally chosen, and the nest is found in a 
whin or other scrubby bush at a short height from the ground. The young are well supplied with food, I 
believe by both parents, though I have only seen the female in attendance ; and I have found in and near the 
nest the common small lizard, stone-chats, and young grouse. 
“ When the birds are perfectly grown, they, with the old birds, leave the high country, and return to their 
old haunts, hunting with regularity the fields of grain, and now commit great havoc among the young game. 
At night they seem to have general roosting-places either among whins or long heath, and alvA^ays in some 
open spot of ground. On a moor of considerable extent I have seen seven in the space of an acre. 'I'hev 
began to approach the sleeping-ground about sunset, and, before going to roost, hunted the whole moor, 
crossing each other often, three or four in view at a time, gliding backwards and forwards in easy graceful 
circles, with seemingly little effort or flapping of the wings. Half an hour may be spent in this Avay. When 
they approach the roost they skim three or four times over it to see that there is no interruption, and then at 
once drop into the spot. Tliese places are easily found in the daytime ; and the birds may be caught by 
placing a common rat-trap, or they may be shot in a moonlight night. In both ways I have procured many 
specimens.” 
The eggs, Avhich vary from three to fiA^e in number, are bluish Avhite, sometimes faintly dotted Avith broAvn, 
and are generally about an inch and three quarters in length by an inch and a third in breadth. 
The preceding extracts from the Avritings of Macgillivray and Sir William Jardine must be regarded as 
descriptive of the bird at the time they Avrote, some thirty years ago ; but, as I have already said, it 
is noAV not nearly so numerous. Still it is to be found in many parts of England and Scotland ; and the 
Duke of Argyll informs me that a pair of this species nested on one of the moors near his seat at Inverary in 
the spring of 1867. 
Besides the British Islands, the Hen Harrier inhabits the Avhole of Central Europe, North Africa, Asia 
Minor, and Persia ; and Jerdon states that it is a “Avinter Ausitant to India, Bootan, Kumaon, and the north- 
western Himalayas, perhaps extending to the plains in the Punjab only.” 
So much difference exists in the size and colouring of the sexes of this and other Harriers, that, had Ave not 
abundant proofs to the contrary, Ave might readily assume that they Avere distinct species. The adult male 
is ahvaysofa delicate grey; but the young of this sex, for the first, and probably the second year, is broAvn, 
like the female, and in this respect resembles the Kestrel and many others of our rapacious birds ; and 
those from foreign countries require as close an iiiAmstigation to arrive at as intimate a knoAvledge of 
them as has been achieved Avith regard to our oavu species. 
The Plate rej)resents a male, someAvhat less than the natural size, AvIth a reduced figure of the female or 
Ringtail in the distance. 
