128 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
of Its food, which consists of small mammals and reptiles, 
these forming its chief subsistence, though it will also catch 
small birds, and devour both eggs and nestlings of Game- 
Birds. Professor Newton describes the flight of the Hen- 
Harrier as performed apparently without much labour, easy 
and buoyant, but not rapid, and, except in the breeding- 
season, generally within a few feet of the surface of the 
ground, which they examine with great care, making close and 
diligent search for any object of food They have been ob- 
served to hunt the same ground regularly, and a male bird has 
been seen to examine a large wheat-stubble thoroughly, cross- 
ing it in various directions, always about the same hour in the 
afternoon, and for many days in succession. 
Taezanowski says that the present species feeds on rodents 
frogs, lizards, large insects, and the eggs and chicks of small 
birds, but it also often catches the old birds on their nests or 
when they are hiding in the grass. Sometimes it will pursue 
the small birds as they fly up from the latter, but if the 
Harrier does not manage to catch them at once, it soon 
relinquishes the chase. It will sometimes capture Sandpipers 
Quails, Plovers, and other birds. The eggs which it devours 
are mostly those of small birds which breed on the ground 
such as the small Plovers, but Ducks’ nests are but seldom 
plundered by it, as it does not often frequent the places where 
those birds breed. 
^ Nest.— The nest is placed on the ground, and according to 
1 aczanowski, who has given a very interesting account of the 
habits of this Harrier, it is often situated in the brushwood 
in the middle of the prairies or marshes, and in many localities 
in corn-fields. The nest is generally in a dry situation never 
in very moist places, more often on the flat ground than on 
any small elevation. The nest contains few branches and 
never rushes ; as a rule, on a bed composed of some sort of 
rameaux, the bird deposits a layer of fine and long dry grass 
so as to form a compact mass, flattened down, about two feet 
wide and four or five inches high, slightly hollowed towards 
the centre of the nest. 1 he eggs are generally four in number 
more rarely three. The female sits very close, and will not 
move even when a man passes quite near to the nest, but the 
