[1] _Poemata_, lib. vii. cap. 8, p. 245, Migne's _Patrologiae cursus
completus_ (Paris, 1857-1866, vol. 88).
[2] A few nangas (c. 1500 B.C.) are preserved among the Egyptian
antiquities at the British Museum, fourth Egyptian room.
[3] Bruce's harps are reproduced by Champollion, tome iii. p. 261.
[4] Representations of these may be seen among the musical scenes in
the Nimrod Gallery at the British Museum.
[5] See also a woodcut in John Derrick's _Image of Ireland_ (1581),
pl. iii. (Edinburgh ed. 1883).
[6] See the fine volume _Musical Instruments_ on the Irish and
Scottish harps by Robert Bruce Armstrong (1904), vol. i. Vol. ii.,
which deals with the Welsh harp, has unfortunately been withdrawn
from sale.
[7] See for the medieval harp a careful article by Hortense Panum,
"Harfe und Lyra im alten Nord-Europa," in _Intern. Mus. Ges._ vol.
vii. pt. 1 (Leipzig, 1905); and for references as to illuminated
MSS., early woodcuts, paintings, &c. see Hugo Leichtentritt, "Was
lehren uns die Bildwerke des 14-17 Jahrhunderts uber die
Instrumentalmusik ihrer Zeit?" ibid. vol. vii. p. 3 (Leipzig, 1906).
[8] See Nauwerk, "Die Hakenharfe, Die Vervollkommnung des Mechanismus
an der deutschen Harfe." in _Allg. musik. Ztg._ (Leipzig, 1815), p.
545 seq.
HARPENDEN, an urban district in the Mid or St Albans parliamentary
division of Hertfordshire, England, 25 m. N.W. by N. from London by the
Midland railway, served also by a branch of the Great Northern railway.
Pop. (1901) 4725. It is a favourite outlying residential district for
those whose work lies in London. The church of St Nicholas is a modern
reconstruction with the exception of the Perpendicular tower. In the
Lawes Testimonial Laboratory there is a vast collection of samples of
experimentally grown produce, annual products, ashes and soils. Sir John
Bennet Lawes (d. 1900) provided an endowment of L100,000 for the
perpetuation of the agricultural experiments which he inaugurated here
at his seat of Rothamsted Park. The success of his association of
chemistry with botany is shown by the fact that soil has been made to
bear wheat without intermission for upwards of half a century without
manure. The country neighbouring to Harpenden is very pleasant,
including the gorse-covered Harpenden Common and the narrow well-wooded
valley of the upper Lea.
HARPER'S FERRY, a town of Jefferson county, West Virginia, U.S.A.,
finely situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers
(which here pass through a beautiful gorge in the Blue Ridge), 55 m.
N.W. of Washington. Pop. (1900) 896; (1910) 766. It is served by the
Baltimore & Ohio railway, which crosses the Potomac here, by the
Winchester & Potomac railway (Baltimore & Ohio) of which it is a
terminus, and by boats on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, which passes
along the Maryland side of the Potomac. Across the Potomac on the north
rise the Maryland Heights; across the Shenandoah, on the West Virginia
side, the Virginia or Loudoun Heights; and behind the town to the W. the
Bolivar Heights. A United States arsenal and armoury were established at
Harper's Ferry in 1796, the site being chosen because of the good
water-power; these were seized on the 16th of October 1859 by John
Brown (q.v.), the abolitionist, and some 21 of his followers. For four
months before the raid Brown and his men lived on the Kennedy Farm, in
Washington county, Maryland, about 4 m. N.W. of Harper's Ferry. The
engine-house in which Brown was captured was exhibited at the Columbian
Exposition at Chicago and was later rebuilt on Bolivar Heights; a marble
pillar, marked "John Brown's Fort," has been erected on its original
site. On Camp Hill is Storer College (state-aided), a normal school for
negroes, which was established under Free Baptist control in 1867, and
has academic, normal, biblical, musical and industrial departments.
The first settlement here was made about 1747 by Robert Harper, who ran
a ferry across the Potomac. The position of Harper's Ferry at the lower
end of the Shenandoah Valley rendered it a place of strategic importance
during the Civil War. On the 18th of April 1861, the day after Virginia
passed her ordinance of secession, when a considerable force of Virginia
militia under General Kenton Harper approached the town--an attack
having been planned in Richmond two days before--the Federal garrison of
45 men under Lieutenant Roger Jones set fire to the arsenal and fled.
Within the next few days large numbers of Confederate volunteers
assembled here; and Harper was succeeded in command (27th April) by
"Stonewall" Jackson, who was in turn succeeded by Brigadier-General
Joseph E. Johnston on the 23rd of May. Johnston thought that the place
was unimportant, and withdrew when (15th June) the Federal forces under
General Robert Patterson and Colonel Lew Wallace approached, and
Harper's Ferry was again occupied by a Federal garrison. In September
1862, during General Lee's first invasion of the North, General
McClellan advised that the place be abandoned in order that the 10,000
men defending it might be added to his fighting force, but General
Halleck would not consent, so that when Lee needed supplies from the
Shenandoah Valley he was blocked by the garrison, then under the command
of Colonel Dixon S. Miles. On Jackson's approach they were distributed
as follows: about 7000 men on Bolivar Heights, about 2000 on Maryland
Heights, and about 1800 on the lower ground. On the 13th of September
General Lafayette McLaws carried Maryland Heights and General John G.
Walker planted a battery on Loudoun Heights. On the 14th there was some
fighting, but early on the 15th, as Jackson was about to make an assault
on Bolivar Heights, the garrison, surrounded by a superior force,
surrendered. The total Federal loss (including the garrisons at
Winchester and Martinsburg) amounted to 44 killed (the commander was
mortally wounded), 12,520 prisoners, and 13,000 small arms. For this
terrible loss to the Union army the responsibility seems to have been
General Halleck's, though the blame was officially put on Colonel Miles,
who died immediately after the surrender. Jackson rejoined Lee on the
following day in time to take part in the battle of Antietam, and after
the battle General McClellan placed a strong garrison (the 12th Corps)
at Harper's Ferry. In June 1863 the place was again abandoned to the
Confederates on their march to Pennsylvania. After their defeat at
Gettysburg, the town again fell into the hands of the Federal troops,
and it remained in their possession until the end of the war. On the 4th
of July 1864 General Franz Sigel, who was then in command here, withdrew
his troops to Maryland Heights, and from there resisted Early's attempt
to enter the town and to drive the Federal garrison from Maryland
Heights. Harper's Ferry was seriously damaged by a flood in the
Shenandoah in October 1878.
HARPIES (Gr. [Greek: Harpyiai], older form [Greek: Arepyiai], "swift
robbers"), in ancient mythology, the personification of the sweeping
storm-winds. In Homer, where they appear indifferently under the name of
[Greek: harpyiai] and [Greek: thyellai], their function is to carry off
those whose sudden disappearance is desired by the gods. Only one of
them is there mentioned (_Iliad_, xvi. 150) by name, Podarge, the mother
of the coursers of Achilles by Zephyrus, the generative wind. According
to Hesiod (_Theog._ 265) they are two in number, Aello and Ocypete,
daughters of Thaumas and Electra, winged goddesses with beautiful
locks, swifter than winds and birds in their flight, and their domain is
the air. In later times their number was increased (Celaeno being a
frequent addition and their leader in Virgil), and they were described
as hateful and repulsive creatures, birds with the faces of old women,
the ears of bears, crooked talons and hanging breasts; even in Aeschylus
(_Eumenides_, 50) they appear as ugly and misshapen monsters. Their
function of snatching away mortals to the other world brings them into
connexion with the Erinyes, with whom they are often confounded. On the
so-called Harpy monument from Lycia, now in the British Museum, the
Harpies appear carrying off some small figures, supposed to be the
daughters of Pandareus, unless they are intended to represent departed
souls. The repulsive character of the Harpies is more especially seen in
the legend of Phineus, king of Salmydessus in Thrace (Apollodorus i. 9,
21; see also Diod. Sic. iv. 43). Having been deprived of his sight by
the gods for his ill-treatment of his sons by his first wife (or for
having revealed the future to mortals), he was condemned to be tormented
by two Harpies, who carried off whatever food was placed before him. On
the arrival of the Argonauts, Phineus promised to give them particulars
of the course they should pursue and of the dangers that lay before
them, if they would deliver him from his tormentors. Accordingly, when
the Harpies appeared as usual to carry off the food from Phineus's
table, they were driven off and pursued by Calais and Zetes, the sons of
Boreas, as far as the Strophades islands in the Aegean. On promising to
cease from molesting Phineus, their lives were spared. Their place of
abode is variously placed in the Strophades, the entrance to the
under-world, or a cave in Crete. According to Cecil Smith, _Journal of
Hellenic Studies_, xiii. (1892-1893), the Harpies are the hostile
spirits of the scorching south wind; E. Rohde (_Rheinisches Museum_, i.,
1895) regards them as spirits of the storm, which at the bidding of the
gods carry off human beings alive to the under-world or some spot beyond
human ken.
See articles in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_ and Daremberg and
Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_. In the article GREEK ART, fig.
14 gives a representation of the winged Harpies.
HARPIGNIES, HENRI (1819- ), French landscape painter, born at
Valenciennes in 1819, was intended by his parents for a business career,
but his determination to become an artist was so strong that it
conquered all obstacles, and he was allowed at the age of twenty-seven
to enter Achard's atelier in Paris. From this painter he acquired a
groundwork of sound constructive draughtsmanship, which is so marked a
feature of his landscape painting. After two years under this exacting
teacher he went to Italy, whence he returned in 1850. During the next
few years he devoted himself to the painting of children in landscape
setting, and fell in with Corot and the other Barbizon masters, whose
principles and methods are to a certain extent reflected in his own
personal art. To Corot he was united by a bond of warm friendship, and
the two artists went together to Italy in 1860. On his return, he scored
his first great success at the Salon, in 1861, with his "Lisiere de bois
sur les bords de l'Allier." After that year he was a regular exhibitor
at the old Salon; in 1886 he received his first medal for "Le Soir dans
la campagne de Rome," which was acquired for the Luxembourg Gallery.
Many of his best works were painted at Herisson in the Bourbonnais, as
well as in the Nivernais and the Auvergne. Among his chief pictures are
"Soir sur les bords de la Loire" (1861), "Les Corbeaux" (1865), "Le
Soir" (1866), "Le Saut-du-Loup" (1873), "La Loire" (1882), and "Vue de
Saint-Prive" (1883). He also did some decorative work for the Paris
Opera--the "Vallee d'Egerie" panel, which he showed at the Salon of
1870.
HARP-LUTE, or DITAL HARP, one of the many attempts to revive the
popularity of the guitar and to increase its compass, invented in 1798
by Edward Light. The harp-lute owes the first part of its name to the
characteristic mechanism for shortening the effective length of the
strings; its second name--dital harp--emphasizes the nature of the
stops, which are worked by the thumb in contradistinction to the pedals
of the harp worked by the feet. It consists of a pear-shaped body, to
which is added a curved neck supported on a front pillar or arm
springing from the body, and therefore reminiscent of the harp. There
are 12 catgut strings. The curved fingerboard, almost parallel with the
neck, is provided with frets, and has in addition a thumb-key for each
string, by means of which the accordance of the string is mechanically
raised a semitone at will. The dital or key, on being depressed, acts
upon a stop-ring or eye, which draws the string down against the fret,
and thus shortens its effective length. The fingers then stop the
strings as usual over the remaining frets. A further improvement was
patented in 1816 as the British harp-lute. Other attempts possessing
less practical merit than the dital harp were the lyra-guitarre, which
appeared in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century; the
accord-guitarre, towards the middle of the same century; and the keyed
guitar. (K. S.)
HARPOCRATES, originally an Egyptian deity, adopted by the Greeks, and
worshipped in later times both by Greeks and Romans. In Egypt,
Harpa-khruti, Horus the child, was one of the forms of Horus, the
sun-god, the child of Osiris. He was supposed to carry on war against
the powers of darkness, and hence Herodotus (ii. 144) considers him the
same as the Greek Apollo. He was represented in statues with his finger
on his mouth, a symbol of childhood. The Greeks and Romans, not
understanding the meaning of this attitude, made him the god of silence
(Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 691), and as such he became a favourite deity with
the later mystic schools of philosophy.
See articles by G. Lafaye in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des
antiquites_, and by E. Meyer (_s.v._ "Horos") in Roscher's _Lexikon
der Mythologie_.
HARPOCRATION, VALERIUS, Greek grammarian of Alexandria. He is possibly
the Harpocration mentioned by Julius Capitolinus (_Life of Verus_, 2) as
the Greek tutor of Antoninus Verus (2nd century A.D.); some authorities
place him much later, on the ground that he borrowed from Athenaeus. He
is the author of a [Greek: Lexikon] (or [Greek: Peri ton lexeon) ton
deka rhetoron], which has come down to us in an incomplete form. The
work contains, in more or less alphabetical order, notes on well-known
events and persons mentioned by the orators, and explanations of legal
and commercial expressions. As nearly all the lexicons to the Greek
orators have been lost, Harpocration's work is especially valuable.
Amongst his authorities were the writers of Atthides (histories of
Attica), the grammarian Didymus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the
lexicographer Dionysius, son of Tryphon. The book also contains
contributions to the history of Attic oratory and Greek literature
generally. Nothing is known of an [Greek: 'Antheron synagoge], a sort of
anthology or chrestomathy attributed to him by Suidas. A series of
articles in the margin of a Cambridge MS. of the lexicon forms the basis
of the _Lexicon rhetoricum Cantabrigiense_ (see DOBREE, P. P.).
The best edition is by W. Dindorf (1853); see also J. E. Sandys,
_History of Classical Scholarship_, i. (1906), p. 325; C. Boysen, _De
Harpocrationis fontibus_ (Kiel, 1876).
HARPOON (from Fr. _harpon_, a grappling-iron, O. Fr. _harpe_, a dog's
claw, an iron clamp for fastening stones together; the source of these
words is the Lat. _harpago_, _harpa_, &c., formed from Gr. [Greek:
harpage], hook, [Greek: harpazein], to snatch, tear away, cf. "harpy"),
barbed spear, particularly one used for spearing whales or other large
fish, and either thrown by hand or fired from a gun (see WHALE-FISHERY).
HARPSICHORD, HARPSICON, DOUBLE VIRGINALS (Fr. _clavecin_; Ger.
_Clavicymbel_, _Kiel-Flugel_; Ital. _arpicordo_, _cembalo_,
_clavicembalo_, _gravecembalo_; Dutch, _clavisinbal_), a large keyboard
instrument (see PIANOFORTE), belonging to the same family as the
virginal and spinet, but having 2, 3, or even 4 strings to each note,
and a case of the harp or wing shape, afterwards adopted for the grand
pianoforte. J. S. Bach's harpsichord, preserved in the museum of the
Hochschule fur Musik at Charlottenburg, has two manuals and 4 strings to
each note, one 16 ft., two 8 ft. and one 4 ft. By means of stops the
performer has within his power a number of combinations for varying the
tone and dynamic power. In all instruments of the harpsichord family
the strings, instead of being struck by tangents as in the clavichord,
or by hammers as in the pianoforte, are plucked by means of a quill
firmly embedded in the centred tongue of a jack or upright placed on the
back end of the key-lever. When the finger depresses a key, the jack is
thrown up, and in passing the crow-quill catches the string and twangs
it. It is this twanging of the string which produces the brilliant
incisive tone peculiar to the harpsichord family. What these instruments
gain in brilliancy of tone, however, they lose in power of expression
and of accent. The impossibility of commanding any emphasis necessarily
created for the harpsichord an individual technique which influenced the
music composed for it to so great an extent that it cannot be adequately
rendered upon the pianoforte.
The harpsichord assumed a position of great importance during the 16th
and 17th centuries, more especially in the orchestra, which was under
the leadership of the harpsichord player. The most famous of all
harpsichord makers, whose names form a guarantee for excellence, were
the Ruckers, established at Antwerp from the last quarter of the 16th
century. (K. S.)
HARPY, a large diurnal bird of prey, so named after the mythological
monster of the classical poets (see HARPIES),--the _Thrasaetus harpyia_
of modern ornithologists--an inhabitant of the warmer parts of America
from Southern Mexico to Brazil. Though known since the middle of the
17th century, its habits have come very little under the notice of
naturalists, and what is said of them by the older writers must be
received with some suspicion. A cursory inspection of the bird, which is
not unfrequently brought alive to Europe, its size, and its enormous
bill and talons, at once suggest the vast powers of destruction imputed
to it, and are enough to account for the stories told of its ravages on
mammals--sloths, fawns, peccaries and spider-monkeys. It has even been
asserted to attack the human race. How much of this is fabulous there
seems no means at present of determining, but some of the statements are
made by veracious travellers--D'Orbigny and Tschudi. It is not uncommon
in the forests of the isthmus of Panama, and Salvin says (_Proc. Zool.
Society_, 1864, p. 368) that its flight is slow and heavy. Indeed its
owl-like visage, its short wings and soft plumage, do not indicate a
bird of very active habits, but the weapons of offence with which it is
armed show that it must be able to cope with vigorous prey. Its
appearance is sufficiently striking--the head and lower parts, except a
pectoral band, white, the former adorned with an erectile crest, the
upper parts dark grey banded with black, the wings dusky, and the tail
barred; but the huge bill and powerful scutellated legs most of all
impress the beholder. The precise affinities of the harpy cannot be said
to have been determined. By some authors it is referred to the eagles,
by others to the buzzards, and by others again to the hawks; but
possibly the first of these alliances is the most likely to be true.
(A. N.)
[Illustration: Harpy.]
HARRAN, HARAN or CHARRAN (Sept. [Greek: Charrhran] or [Greek: Charrha]:
Strabo, [Greek: Karrhai]: Pliny, _Carrae_ or _Carrhae_; Arab. _Harran_),
in biblical history the place where Terah halted after leaving Ur, and
apparently the birthplace of Abraham, a town on the stream Jullab, some
nine hours' journey from Edessa in Syria. At this point the road from
Damascus joins the highway between Nineveh and Carchemish, and Haran had
thus considerable military and commercial value. As a strategic position
it is mentioned in inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath Pileser
I., about 1100 B.C., and subsequently by Sargon II., who restored the
privileges lost at the rebellion which led to the conquest referred to
in 2 Kings xix. 12 (= Isa. xxxvii. 12). It was the centre of a
considerable commerce (Ezek. xxvii. 23), and one of its specialities was
the odoriferous gum derived from the strobus (Pliny, _H.N._ xii. 40). It
was here that Crassus in his eastern expedition was attacked and slain
by the Parthians (53 B.C.); and here also the emperor Caracalla was
murdered at the instigation of Macrinus (A.D. 217). Haran was the chief
home of the moon-god Sin, whose temple was rebuilt by several kings,
among them Assur-bani-pal and Nabunidus and Herodian (iv. 13, 7)
mentions the town as possessing in his day a temple of the moon. In the
middle ages it is mentioned as having been the seat of a particular
heathen sect, that of the Haranite Sabeans. It retained its importance
down to the period of the Arab ascendancy; but by Abulfeda it is
mentioned as having before his time fallen into decay. It is now wholly
in ruins. The Yahwistic writer (Gen. xxvii. 43) makes it the home of
Laban and connects it with Isaac and Jacob. But we cannot thus put Haran
in Aramnaharaim; the home of the Labanites is rather to be looked for in
the very similar word Hauran.
HARRAR (or HARAR), a city of N.E. Africa, in 8 deg. 45' N., 42 deg. 36'
E., capital of a province of Abyssinia and 220 m. S.S.W. of the ports of
Zaila (British) and Jibuti (French) on the Gulf of Aden. With Jibuti it
is connected by a railway (188 m. long) and carriage-road. Harrar is
built on the slopes of a hill at an elevation of over 5000 ft. A lofty
stone wall, pierced by five gates and flanked by twenty-four towers,
encloses the city, which has a population of about 40,000. The streets
are steep, narrow, dirty and unpaved, the roadways consisting of rough
boulders. The houses are in general made of undressed stone and mud and
are flat-topped, the general aspect of the city being Oriental and
un-Abyssinian. A few houses, including the palace of the governor and
the foreign consulates, are of more elaborate and solid construction
than the majority of the buildings. There are several mosques and an
Abyssinian church (of the usual circular construction) built of stone.
Harrar is a city of considerable commercial importance, through it
passing all the merchandise of southern Abyssinia, Kaffa and Galla land.
The chief traders are Abyssinians, Armenians and Greeks. The principal
article of export is coffee, which is grown extensively in the
neighbouring hills and is of the finest quality. Besides coffee there is
a large trade in durra, the kat plant (used by the Mahommedans as a
drug), ghee, cattle, mules and camels, skins and hides, ivory and gums.
The import trade is largely in cotton goods, but every kind of
merchandise is included.
Harrar is believed to owe its foundation to Arab immigrants from the
Yemen in the 7th century of the Christian era. In the region of
Somaliland, now the western part of the British protectorate of that
name, the Arabs established the Moslem state of Adel or Zaila, with
their capital at Zaila on the Gulf of Aden. In the 13th century the
sultans of Adel enjoyed great power. In 1521 the then sultan Abubekr
transferred the seat of government to Harrar, probably regarding Zaila
as too exposed to the attacks of the Turkish and Portuguese navies then
contending for the mastery of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Abubekr's
successor was Mahommed III., Ahmed ibn Ibrahim el-Ghazi (1507-1543),
surnamed Gran (Granye), the left-handed. He was not an Arab but,
probably, of Somali origin. The son of a noted warrior, he quickly rose
to supreme power, becoming sultan or amir in 1525. He is famous for his
invasion of Abyssinia, of which country he was virtual master for
several years. From the beginning of the 17th century Adel suffered
greatly from the ravages of pagan Galla tribes, and Harrar sank to the
position of an amirate of little importance. It was first visited by a
European in 1854 when (Sir) Richard Burton spent ten days there in the
guise of an Arab. In 1875 Harrar was occupied by an Egyptian force under
Raouf Pasha, by whose orders the amir was strangled. The town remained
in the possession of Egypt until 1885, when the garrison was withdrawn
in consequence of the rising of the Mahdi in the Sudan. The Egyptian
garrison and many Egyptian civilians, in all 6500 persons, left Harrar
between November 1884 and the 25th of April 1885, when a son of the
ruler who had been deposed by Egypt was installed as amir, the
arrangement being carried out under the superintendence of British
officers. The new amir held power until January 1887, in which month
Harrar was conquered by Menelek II., king of Shoa (afterwards emperor of
Abyssinia). The governorship of Harrar was by Menelek entrusted to Ras
Makonnen, who held the post until his death in 1906.
The Harrari proper are of a distinct stock from the neighbouring
peoples, and speak a special language. Harrarese is "a Semitic graft
inserted into an indigenous stock" (Sir R. Burton, _First Footsteps in
East Africa_). The Harrari are Mahommedans of the Shafa'i or Persian
sect, and they employ the solar year and the Persian calendar. Besides
the native population there are in Harrar colonies of Abyssinians,
Somalis and Gallas. By the Somalis the place is called Adari, by the
Gallas Adaray.
See ABYSSINIA; SOMALILAND. Also P. Paulitschke, _Harar:
Forschungsreise nach den Somal- und Galla-Landern Ost-Afrikas_
(Leipzig, 1888).
HARRATIN, black Berbers, dwelling in Tidikelt and other Saharan oases.
Many of them are blacker than the average negro. In physique, however,
they are true to the Berber type, being of handsome appearance with
European features and well-proportioned bodies. They are the result of
an early crossing with the Sudanese negro races, though to-day they have
all the pride of the Berbers (q.v.), and do not live with or intermarry
among negroes.
HARRIER, or HEN-HARRIER, name given to certain birds of prey which were
formerly very abundant in parts of the British Islands, from their habit
of harrying poultry. The first of these names has now become used in a
generic sense for all the species ranked under the genus _Circus_ of
Lacepede, and the second confined to the particular species which is the
_Falco cyaneus_ of Linnaeus and the _Circus cyaneus_ of modern
ornithologists.
One European species, _C. aeruginosus_, though called in books the
marsh-harrier, is far more commonly known in England and Ireland as the
moor-buzzard. But harriers are not, like buzzards, arboreal in their
habits, and always affect open country, generally, though not
invariably, preferring marshy or fenny districts, for snakes and frogs
form a great part of their ordinary food. On the ground their carriage
is utterly unlike that of a buzzard, and their long wings and legs
render it easy to distinguish the two groups when taken in the hand. All
the species also have a more or less well-developed ruff or frill of
small thickset feathers surrounding the lower part of the head, nearly
like that seen in owls, and accordingly many systematists consider that
the genus _Circus_, though undoubtedly belonging to the _Falconidae_,
connects that family with the Striges. No osteological affinity,
however, can be established between the harriers and any section of the
owls, and the superficial resemblance will have to be explained in some
other way. Harriers are found almost all over the world,[1] and fifteen
species are recognized by Bowdler Sharpe (_Cat. Birds Brit. Museum_, i.
pp. 50-73). In most if not all the harriers the sexes differ greatly in
colour, so much so that for a long while the males and females of one of
the commonest and best known, the _C. cyaneus_ above mentioned, were
thought to be distinct species, and were or still are called in various
European languages by different names. The error was maintained with the
greater persistency since the young males, far more abundant than the
adults, wear much the same plumage as their mother, and it was not until
after Montagu's observations were published at the beginning of the 19th
century that the "ringtail," as she was called (the _Falco pygargus_ of
Linnaeus), was generally admitted to be the female of the "hen-harrier."
But this was not Montagu's only good service as regards this genus. He
proved the hitherto unexpected existence of a second species,[2] subject
to the same diversity of plumage. This was called by him the
ash-coloured falcon, but it now generally bears his name, and is known
as Montagu's harrier, _C. cineraceus_. In habits it is very similar to
the hen-harrier, but it has longer wings, and its range is not so
northerly, for while the hen-harrier extends to Lapland, Montagu's is
but very rare in Scotland, though in the south of England it is the most
common species. Harriers indeed in the British Islands are rapidly
becoming things of the past. Their nests are easily found, and the birds
when nesting are easily destroyed. In the south-east of Europe, reaching
also to the Cape of Good Hope and to India, there is a fourth species,
the _C. swainsoni_ of some writers, the _C. pallidus_ of others. In
North America _C. cyaneus_ is represented by a kindred form, _C.
hudsonius_, usually regarded as a good species, the adult male of which
is always to be recognized by its rufous markings beneath, in which
character it rather resembles _C. cineraceus_, but it has not the long
wings of that species. South America has in _C. cinereus_ another
representative form, while China, India and Australia possess more of
this type. Thus there is a section in which the males have a strongly
contrasted black and grey plumage, and finally there is a group of
larger forms allied to the European _C. aeruginosus_, wherein a grey
dress is less often attained, of which the South African _C. ranivorus_
and the New Zealand _C. gouldi_ are examples. (A. N.)
[Illustration: Hen-Harrier (Male and Female).]