The Hen Harrier
 Morris's British Birds 1891
 Scanned by www.BirdCheck.co.uk
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Hen Harrier
Image Title: Hen Harrier
Description: Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

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HEN HARRIER.
BOD TINWIN, IN ANCIENT BRITISH.
WHITE HAWK. DOVE HAWK. BLUE HAWK, (MALE.) RINGTAIL, (FEMALE.) HARPY HAWK.
Circus cyaneus, FLEMING. SELBY. Falco cyaneus, MONTAGU.
Falco torquatus, BRISSON. Falco pygargus, LINNAEUS.
Circus—The Greek name of some species of Hawk. Cyaneus—Blue—blue coloured.

It is somewhat surprising that Mr. Yarrell should appear to give Montagu the credit of determining that the two supposed species, the Hen Harrier and the Ringtail, are identical, when the fact had been long before previously observed by Willughby.
'It has become known,' says Yarrell, 'on account of a supposed partiality to some part of the produce of the farm-yard, by the more general name of Hen Harrier.' The Kite and the Sparrow-Hawk have however, an equal claim to the distinction. 'The male,' says Mr. St. John, 'is distinguished from afar by his nearly white plumage.' Bewick's description of this bird seems to me in some particulars to apply to the next species.
The Hen Harrier is widely distributed, being found in the low and flat districts of France, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and other countries of Europe; in India, Siberia, Tartary, Japan, China, Persia, Palestine, Asia Minor, and other parts of Asia; in Africa, as in Algeria, Morocco and Abyssinia; and possibly in New Holland, and in America, but Selby observes that some doubts still remain as to the specific identity of the latter species and ours.
In this country, though in no part numerous, it is generally dispersed in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In Yorkshire it used to be not uncommon on the low grounds and carrs; sometimes met with in the East Riding, one, December 29th., 1882, at Meltonby, near Pocklington, rare near Sheffield and Leeds, and not very unfrequently near Huddersfield. It has also bred on Hambledon, and in the neighbourhood of Pickering. In Lincolnshire has occurred at Bilsby. In Cornwall one was shot by Mr. May, at Gwillinvase, August 18th., 1857— another a female, June 4th., 1860. It has also been accustomed to breed in the counties of Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucester, Monmouth, Durham, Hants, Cumberland, Kent, Sussex, Norfolk, Salop, Wilts., Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Notts., Northants., and Northumberland.
In Wales at Llandudno.
In Scotland too, in those of Wigton, Lanark, Haddington, Selkirk, Stirling, and the Highlands generally.
In Ireland on the Wicklow mountains.
It is a perennial inhabitant of the Hebrides and Orkneys. It seems to frequent the lower lands in the winter, and the higher in the summer.
The Hen Harrier attaches itself to open wastes, downs, and commons, wide moors, fens, and marshy situations, where sedge and stunted bushes, furze, or heather, are the natural growth. It appears to roost only on the ground, and is easily trapped.
Its flight is low, but light and buoyant, though not very swift. Sometimes it hovers in the air for a short time, somewhat in the manner of the Kestrel: again it sails on motionless pinions, but generally with quick pulsations. Before commencing the nest, both birds may be seen soaring about and sporting in the air: occasionally they do so at a considerable elevation, wheeling in circles. Its attitude when settled, is nearly erect, and it mostly selects some little eminence to alight on.
It beats its hunting grounds with regularity, both of plan and time, and with careful investigation. Game, both old and young, curlews, partridges, pheasants, fowls, lapwings, buntings, larks, snipes, stonechats, and other larger and smaller birds, leverets, rabbits, rats, mice, and other small animals, lizards, vipers, snakes, and frogs, with occasionally dead fish, compose its food, and all these it pounces on on the ground, If it does chase anything in the air, it does not seize it there, but drives it first to the earth. One, however has been seen flying off with a grouse. Mr. Thompson relates of another as follows:—'A sportsman having killed a snipe, was in the act of reloading his gun, when the Hawk sweeping quickly past him, made a stoop to carry off the snipe, and when just seizing the bird, was itself brought down by the second barrel.' So it will, somewhat in the same manner as said of the Peregrine, when it has made a capture, and rob it of its booty. No fewer than twenty lizards were found in a specimen which was killed near London.
The note is loud and clear, and resembles in some degree that of the Kestrel.
The nest, which is built on open wastes, and frequently in a furze cover, and placed on or near the ground, is composed of small sticks rudely put together, sedge, reeds, flags, grass and other coarse materials. It is made of considerable height, sometimes as much as a foot and a half; possibly in such cases a safeguard against floods. One has been known thus raised to the height of four feet—perhaps a second storey had been added to a former tenement. The male assists the female occasionally in the task of incubation. The young are hatched early in June: both parents are said to supply them with food. They have been known to remove them from danger in their talons.
The late R. H. Sweeting, Esq., of Charmouth, mentioned in a letter to Mr. Yarrell the fact of a Ringtail and Montagu's Harrier having been shot together at their nest.
The eggs are four or five in number, sometimes, I believe, six; and most frequently white, or bluish, or greenish white, and in some instances, more distinctly spotted, but often slightly marked with yellowish brown or light brown. Bewick describes some as of a reddish colour, with a few white spots.
Male; weight, about twelve or thirteen ounces; length, from sixteen to eighteen inches or eighteen inches and a half; bill, black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; a number of bristles almost hide the cere at the base of the bill. The head, which is bluish grey, is surrounded by a wreath of short stiff feathers, white at the base, and slightly tipped with grey; neck, ash grey; nape, the same, but occasionally mottled with reddish brown, as are other parts of the plumage while in the changing state; chin and throat, fine light grey. Breast, on the upper part grey, on the lower part white, or bluish white. Montagu describes one specimen which was streaked with dusky; back, fine light grey. The wings reach to within two inches of the end of the tail, and expand to above three feet—the first quill is shorter than the sixth: all the feathers very soft. Mr. Yarrell quotes in his work an observation which I had recorded some years before in my magazine the 'Naturalist,' as to the fourth quill feather in the female being the longest, and the third in the male. He suggests that in such cases the birds may have been killed in autumn before the ultimate relative length of the feathers has been gained. The question, however, would be a puzzling one, why one feather should grow faster than another—'who shall decide?' A difficulty is certainly put in the way of founding specific distinctions on the relative length of the quill feathers, as I have already pointed out in the case of the Sparrow-Hawk, and shall have occasion again to do in that of the Snowy Owl.
Greater wing coverts, grey; lesser wing coverts, grey, but they seem to be the last part of the plumage that loses the ferruginous tint of the young bird. The first six primaries, nearly black, are white at the base, and tipped with grey; the others grey on the outer webs, white on the inner, and faintly barred with dark grey: the first feather is very short, and the lightest coloured, the fourth the longest, the third nearly as long, the fifth a little longer than the second, the seventh about the length of the first. Secondaries and tertiaries, grey on the outer webs and tips, white on the inner webs; larger and lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail, white, except the two middle feathers, which are grey, with sometimes a few markings; the inner webs of the outer ones barred with eight dark grey or dusky bars, the outer webs grey, without bars generally, but some have them slightly barred with rust-colour; underneath, it is greyish white, with traces of five darker bars; upper and under tail coverts, white. Legs, long, feathered, and, as the toes, yellow; claws, black.
Female; weight, about eighteen ounces; length, one foot eight to one foot nine inches; bill, black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; the eyes are surrounded with white or pale greyish yellow; bristles about the bill; forehead, pale greyish yellow. Head, brown, the feathers margined with rufous, forming a faint collar; neck also brown; the ruff, which is more distinct than in the male, dusky, or reddish, or yellowish white, or white, the shafts of the feathers brown; nape, rufous; chin, white; throat, light rufous, the feathers streaked with pale brown. Breast, yellowish white, or pale rufous brown, streaked with orange brown or dusky in the centre of each feather, and the shafts still darker. Back, brown, varied with yellowish or reddish brown.
The wings, as in the male, except as to the length of the quills, (vide supra)—they expand to from two feet and a half to two feet ten inches. Greater and lesser wing coverts, brown, margined with rufous, several of them have one or two round concealed white spots; primaries, dusky, the outer webs cinereous, barred beneath with white and dark brown; secondaries and tertiaries, dusky, slightly edged with a paler shade; greater and lesser under wing coverts, reddish white, with dark centres to the feathers. Tail, light brown, white at the base, barred on the side feathers with waved bars of darker and lighter brown—six on the middle, and four on the side feathers—the lighter one shaded to rufous on the inner webs, which appear whitish underneath, the last bar is the widest; the inner webs, excepting those of the two middle feathers, pale reddish grey; the shafts pale brown. In some specimens the outer feather on each side is light, and without bars; the tip of the tail, whitish or pale rust colour; underneath, the tail is paler, the middle feathers barred with dusky black and dull white. Tail coverts, white, sometimes with a few brown markings; under tail coverts, yellowish white, but lighter and less marked, sometimes spotless. Legs, yellow, feathered in front, as in the male, one-third down; toes, yellow; claws, black.
The young are at first covered with white down—the males are smaller than the females, and lighter coloured. The females as they advance in age change the brown for more of grey, and the light for greyish yellow; the bars on the wings shew more distinctly, from the intervals becoming lighter and also encroaching upon them. The males gradually change from brown to grey, commencing the transformation when about a year old: the former however is their bridegroom's attire. When fully fledged, the bill is blackish brown, yellow at the base; cere, yellow; iris, dark brown; head and neck, brown, edged with rufous; the ruff the same, but paler, at the edges. Breast, brownish red, each feather having a central band of brown; back, rich brown; primaries and secondaries, edged with brownish grey, the dark bands indistinct, except on the inner webs. The tail has four bands of dark brown, and four of pale red, the end one, of the latter colour, fades into white; upper tail coverts, white spotted with brown; legs, yellow; toes, blackish brown.
The older the female, the more is there of the brown colour, and the tail is more tinged with grey.
In one kept in confinement, the upper bill grew so much hooked as almost to prevent the bird from feeding; but by cutting half an inch of it off, the difficulty was removed.
'Among the mountains of Mourne, in the county of Down,' says William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, 'this bird has been observed by the Rev. G. M. Black, who remarks that the Ringtail or female may be readily distinguished when on the wing by the whitish marking above the tail.'

"And like the haggard, checks at every feather That comes before his eye."
Twelfth Night.

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