Birds of Guernsey (1879) - And the Neighbouring Islands: Alderney, Sark, Jethou, Herm; Being a Small Contribution to the Ornitholony of the Channel Islands by Cecil Smith
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page 24 of 187 (12%)
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have been impossible to identify it. Indeed, though it was immediately
distinguishable from the Common Buzzard by its feathered legs, there was some little difficulty about identifying it, even when handling it as a skin. Professor Ansted includes the Rough-legged Buzzard in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen at present in the Museum. 12. MARSH HARRIER. _Circus Oeruginosus_, Linnaeus. French, "Busard des Marais."--This seems to be the least common of the Harriers in the Channel Islands, though it does occur occasionally, and perhaps more frequently than is generally supposed. There are two specimens in the Museum in Guernsey both in immature plumage; in that state, in fact, in which this bird most commonly occurs, and in which it is the Bald Buzzard of Bewick. Miss C.B. Carey records one in the November number of the 'Zoologist' for 1874 in the following words:--"In the May of this year an adult male Marsh Harrier was found in Herm. Unfortunately it got into the hands of some person who, I believe, kept it too long before bringing it over to be preserved, so that all that remains of it is the head." I had no opportunity of examining this bird myself, not even the head, but I am disposed to doubt its being fully adult, as it seems to me much more probable that it was much in the same state as those in the Museum, in which state it is much more common than in the fully adult plumage. Miss Carey seems only to have seen the head herself, so there may easily have been a mistake on this point. |
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