(CINEREOUS HARRIER.)
+Circus cinereus+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p. 56; _Scl. et Salv. P. Z.
S._ 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres); _iid. Nomencl._ p. 118; _Burm.
La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 439 (Mendoza); _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1872, p.
536 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 38 (Patagonia) et p.
187 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 397 (Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_,
1879, p. 411 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 30 (Bahia
Blanca); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 469 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above bluish grey, with darker mottlings;
wing-coverts with obsolete whitish edgings; primaries blackish; tail
grey, with four black cross bands, and tipped with white: beneath,
throat and neck like the back; abdomen thickly banded with white and
rufous bars; under wing-coverts white; bill black; feet yellow;
nails black: whole length 18·0 inches, wing 12·0, tail 8·2.
_Female_: rather larger; above dark brown, with lighter brown spots
and edgings; throat and fore neck like the back; wings beneath with
black cross bands.
_Hab._ Southern portion of South America.
This Harrier is found throughout the Argentine Republic, and is also
common in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. On the pampas it is, I
think, the most common bird of prey, after the excessively abundant
_Milvago chimango_. Like the Chimango, it also prefers an open unwooded
country, and resembles that bird not a little in its general appearance,
and when in the brown stage of plumage may be easily mistaken for it. In
the Falklands it has even acquired the Carrion Hawk's habits, for
Darwin distinctly saw one feeding on a carcass there, very much to his
surprise. On the pampas I have always found it a diligent bird-hunter,
and its usual mode of proceeding is to drive up the bird from the grass
and to pursue and strike it down with its claws. Mr. Gibson's account of
its habits agrees with mine, and he says that "it will raise any small
bird time after time, should the latter endeavour to conceal itself in
the grass, preferring, as it would seem, to strike it on the wing." He
further says:--"Its flight is low and rather rapid, while if its quarry
should double it loses no ground, for it turns something in the manner
of a Tumbler Pigeon, going rapidly head over heels in the most eccentric
and amusing fashion."
Probably this Harrier has a partial migration, as a great many are
always seen travelling across the pampas in the autumn and spring; many
individuals, however, remain all winter.
The nest is made on the ground among long grass, or in reed-beds in
marshy places, and the eggs are white blotched with dark red.