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.