Volume 20, Plate XXII / Ornithology (Birds)

Common Harrier

Circus cyaneus

A familiar and typical harrier, the Common Harrier haunts wastes, commons, and downs of England, the subalpine ranges of Scotland, and similar localities in Ireland, retiring to the wildest hills for breeding. The sexes were long known apart as Hen Harrier and Ringtail; pairs soar and sport noisily before nesting, building among heath by a ravine with a slender lined fabric of sticks, the female driving off the male once she begins to hatch.