i Me ies; ing agu it is the most
appears to be more numerous in the southern counties ; and according to Montagu it is the most common

of the Falcon tribe about the sandy flats of Caernarvonshire, in Wales.
with us, Mr. Stevenson says that the localities selected for this purpose are almost entirely confined to
Ramworth, Barton, Horsey, and Hickling, where the shriek of the railway-whistle has not yet scared them
In the above districts a few pairs of the Marsh-Harrier, as I learn from the

Respecting its still breeding

 

from their natural haunts.
most reliable sources, remain throughout the year; and I feel justified, therefore, in still retaining
the Moor-Buzzard, as this species is frequently termed, in the list of residents, whilst at the same time
I believe that some migratory specimens occur at times. A nest with three young ones was taken near

Yarmouth, in the summer of 1862. It is more or less numerous, according to the nature of the localities,

in all the temperate parts of Europe. Lord Lilford tells us that it is “ perhaps the most abundant of the
Raptorial Birds in European Turkey and Greece. From two to a dozen were almost always to be seen in
every marsh in Epirus, Acarnania, Albania, and Corfu. Very few remain there to breed, the main body
making its appearance in the beginning of November and disappearing in March. I once counted twenty-six
on the wing together near Butrinto.” North Africa as well as Europe is included in the area of range of the
Marsh-Harrier, as are also Egypt and all other countries thence to India, where, according to Mr. Jerdon,
it ‘fis very generally spread, frequenting banks of rivers, lakes, marshes, and inundated fields, or wet
meadow land, occasionally hunting over grass or dry grain-fields. It feeds chiefly on frogs, fish, water-insects,
rats, shrews, and various young or weakly birds. It not unfrequently carries off wounded snipe, and even
teal, and often follows the sportsman.” An old sporting friend assured Mr. Thompson that “ he had often
seen the Marsh-Harrier ‘quarter’ its ground like a setting dog, as the Hen Harrier is well known to
do, and that he considers its performance in this way equal to that of the latter species.”

Much difference occurs in the colouring of the plumage of this species during the first few years of its
existence ; and several must elapse before it attains the perfect state represented in my first Plate; but it is
evident that the bird breeds long before this state of plumage is acquired, since we seldom see a Specimen
thus attired in our islands. Mr. J. H. Gurney is, I believe, inclined to think that the chocolate-coloured birds
represented with a snake, in the foreground of my second Plate, are old females; in that case very young
males will most likely resemble the female. The bird sitting on its nest is probably a male that has not yet
attained its fully adult garb; still this is a point in the history of the Marsh-Harrier that yet requires
determination, but which can only be satisfactorily ascertained by observers in the countries where it is still
plentiful.

«The eggs of the Marsh-Harrier,” says Mr. Hewitson, ‘ are most commonly white, but sometimes spotted ;
and all those I have seen, upon the identity of which reliance could be placed, are considerably less than
those of the Common Buzzard. The bird almost always breeds on the ground, but will sometimes build in
the fork of a large tree; in such a situation the nest would be formed of sticks and such-like materials.
In the fen countries, its usual resort, the nest is composed of so large a quantity of flag, reeds, and sedges,
as to raise it a foot, or a foot and a half above the ground. The eggs are usually four, sometimes, though
not often, five in number; the time of incubation early in May.”

In the adult male the head, cheeks, and nape of the neck are tawny yellow, tinged with rufous on the
crown and ears, and streaked with dark brown; facial disk yellowish-white and brown; back, wing-coverts,
and tertiaries dark reddish-brown, with lighter margins; primaries brownish black; secondaries and tail
ash-grey ; thighs, abdomen, and under tail-coverts deep rufous ; bill bluish black ; cere, irides, legs, and feet
yellow ; claws black.

During the first year the plumage is chocolate-brown, each feather tipped with lighter reddish brown,
and the irides are of a darker colour than in the adult; crown, sides of the face, and throat delicate buff;
gape and sides of the bill and lores blue.

My Plates represent the Marsh-Harrier in the states of plumage above described, about two-thirds of the
size of life. The snake is the Coluber natrix of Linneus, the Common Snake of our island.