Volume 20, Plate XXIII / Ornithology (Birds)

Ash-Coloured Harrier

Circus cineraceus

Discovered as British by Colonel Montague and closely allied to the Common Harrier, the Ash-Coloured Harrier is much rarer, unrecorded in Scotland or Ireland, but breeds on the Northumbrian moors and is common in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. Sharing the same gliding buoyant flight and low hunting, it nests on the ground among furze near marshes; the male is dark blackish grey above with white belly boldly marked reddish brown.