BLUE HAWK, OR HEN-HARRIER. 
29 
American and European specimens I have examined* 
Finally, they are known by retaining 1 traces of the 
yellowish of the inferior surface in larger or smaller 
spots, chiefly on the belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts. 
The hen-harrier’s favourite haunts are rich and 
extensive plains, and low grounds. Though preferring 
open and champaign countries, and seeming to have an 
antipathy to forests, w hich it always shuns, it does not, 
like the ash-coloured harrier, confine itself to marshes, 
but is also seen in dry countries, if level. We are 
informed by Wilson, that it is much esteemed by the 
southern planters, for the services it renders in prevent- 
ing the depredations of the rice-birds upon their crops. 
Cautious and vigilant, it is not only by the facial disk 
that this bird approaches the owls, but also by a habit 
of chasing in the morning and evening, at twilight, and 
occasionally at night when the moon shines. Falconers 
reckon it among the ignoble hawks. Cruel, though 
cowardly, it searches every where for victims, but selects 
them only among w r eak and helpless objects. It preys 
on moles, mice, young birds, and is very destructive to 
game ; and does not spare fishes, snakes, insects, or even 
worms. Its flight is always low r , but, notwithstanding, 
rapid, smooth, and buoyant. It is commonly observed 
sailing over marshes, or perched on trees near them, 
w r hence it pounces suddenly upon its prey. When it 
has thus struck at an object, if it re-appears quickly 
from the grass or reeds, it is a proof that it has missed 
its aim ; for, if otherwise, its prey is devoured on the 
spot. 
It breeds in open wastes, frequently in thick furze 
coverts, among reeds, marshy bushes, the low branches 
of trees, but generally on the ground. The nest is built 
of sticks, reeds, straw, leaves, and similar materials 
heaped together, and is lined with feathers, hair, or 
other soft substances; it contains from three to six, 
but generally four or five, pale bluish-white eggs, large 
and round at each end; the young are born covered 
with white down, to which succeed small feathers of a 
rust colour, varied with brow n and black. If any one 
