INTRODUCTION.

xlil

soared high over the hills. The eggs were all just chipped by the approaching extrusion

large Ringtail, and
os, to see the development of the chick ; 1t was quite naked, but the bill
Ses

of the young. I took one of the eg
gs were laid twenty-seven days ago; therefore

perfectly formed. The keeper tells me that the whole six eg

. ”
it must take about thirty days to batch them.

Vol. I. Pl. XVII.

33. CircUS CINERASCENS

Asn-coLoureD Harrier.
Although I have called this species by the above appellation, it is far better known to British ornitho-
logists by the trivial name of Montagu’s Harrier. The wings of this bird are long and curved ; and its large
fan-shaped tail, crossed by numerous chestnut-coloured bars, must render it very conspicuous during flight.
Judging from the result of my own observations, I should say that this is the commonest of the Harriers,
and that it is certainly the one most universally dispersed over our islands. Its breeding-places have been
found more frequently in Cornwall and other southern and western counties than elsewhere. So widely does

this bird range that it is to be found in most of the countries between Europe and China.

I have mentioned that reptiles form no inconsiderable portion of the food of the Harriers ; and in confir-
mation I may quote the following passage from a letter addressed to me by my friend Mr. Gatcombe, on the
3rd of May, 1872 :—* A few days since, I had a fine old male Montagu’s Harrier brought to me. It was
killed on Dartmoor; and from its crop and stomach I took no less than fourteen lizards, of two kinds, all

nearly perfect, and each full 6 inches long.”

Family STRIGID.

In round numbers there are about 200 different species of Owls distributed over the surface of the globe,
only twelve of which were known to Linnzus, by whom they were included in one genus, S¢riz. The entire
group are now divided into two great divisions, Nocturnt and Diurni, and these again into minor subfamilies,
genera, and subgenera, just as the ornithologist may please to consider them. In England there are ten
species, belonging to as many genera. As might be supposed, so large a family of birds vary in size from
that of a small Eagle to that of a Sparrow. So extensively are they distributed over the world, that it 1s
almost only in the arctic and antarctic regions that they are not found. They are fewest in New Zealand
aud Polynesia, and are perhaps more abundant in Australia than elsewhere, not less than six species of true
Striv inhabiting that country, besides others pertaining to different genera, all of which find a ready means

of subsistence in the many small ; :
any small anomalous quadrupeds of that anomalous section of the earth’s surface.

The excess in the numbers of Ths
; » number: Se es cs
ers of the White or Barn Owls, as we call our bird, doubtless keeps a wholesome

check upon the undue increase of the small

animals alluded to. How strange (is it not?) that the neigh-