BRITISH BIRDS. 
34 
lelfer quills afli-coloured ; on the latter, in fome 
birds, a fpot of black in the middle of each feather 
forms a bar acrofs the wing ; the two middle fea- 
thers of the tail are grey, the three next are mark-* 
ed on their inner webs with dulky bars, the two 
outermoft are marked with alternate bars of white 
and ruft colour ; the legs are long and llender, and 
of a yellow colour. Thefe birds vary much ; of 
feveral which we have been favoured with, from 
John Silvertop, Efq. fome were perfe£tly white on 
the under parts, and of a larger fize than common : 
• — We fuppofe the difference arifes from the age of 
the bird.* 
The Hen-harrier feeds on birds, lizards, and other 
reptiles ; it breeds annually on Cheviot, and on the 
lhady precipices under the Roman wall by Crag- 
lake ;f it flies low, lkimming along the furface of 
the ground in fearch of its prey : The female makes 
her neft on the ground, and lays four eggs of a red® 
difh colour, with a few white fpots. 
# It has been fuppofed that this and the following are male 
and female ; but the repeated inftances of Hen-harriers of both 
fexes having been feen, leaves it beyond all doubt, that they 
conftitute two diftin& fpecies. 
f Wallis’s Natural Hiftory of Northumberland. 
