132 
ALLEN’S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
in a marsh near Lixus in Marocco at the end of April, and he 
could see with his telescope the hen-birds “sitting dotted 
about the marsh.” Montagu’s Harrier hunts for its food in 
the usual manner of these birds, and is also, like all Harriers, 
very destructive to the eggs of other birds, of which it eats a 
great number. Mr. Howard Saunders relates that he took two 
unbroken eggs of the Crested I.ark from the crop of a male of 
one of these Harriers, with the crushed remains of others, but 
with the exception of this evil propensity, the bird devours 
large numbers of small rodents, frogs, snakes, and lizards, as 
well as locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects. Small birds 
also fall victims to its rapacity, but the Harrier does not pursue 
them in full flight, but pounces on them on the nest or on the 
ground. 
Mr. Seebohm writes : — “ Its long and pointed wings give an 
especial gracefulness to its flight. Now it darts rapidly with 
half-closed wings, now it makes a sudden turn with one wing 
elevated, and now it sails over the surface of the ground with 
motionless outspread wings ; but, with all its apparent power 
of flight, it seldom, if ever, pursues small birds if they attempt 
to esciipc.” Montagu’s Harrier has also the habit of sailing 
in wide circles, like many other Birds of Prey. Mr. Howard 
Saunders describes the female, which he put off the nest in 
the Isle of Wight, as “ flying away in repeated and ever widen- 
ing circles. 'I’he same feature was remarked on the return to 
the nest : the wide circles gradually narrowed, and the wings 
were suddenly closed as the bird swept over the nest and 
dropped upon it.” The last-named observer also states that 
the young birds sometimes circle and hover with outspread 
wings and tail, like Kestrels, though less steadily, and the white 
colour of the tail-coverts distinguishes the species at a glance. 
Nest.— A very slight one, generally a mere hollow in the 
ground, lined with dry grass. In the fens, however, Mr. 
Saunders says that it is substantially built of sedge. A nest 
found by Mr. Seebohm in Germany in a field of rye is thus 
described by him : — “ There was no hole whatever in the 
ground : the rye had only been trampled down, and a slight 
but somewhat neat nest made of corn-stalks, and lined with 
a little dry straw. The nest was rather more than nine inches 
