Of late years the numbers of the Hen-Harrier have been greatly thinned by game-preservers, and it only nests now on a few of our largest and wildest moorlands and wastes. Even in Scotland it is fast decreasing so far as nesting goes, whereas it was once plentiful there. Still there are a fairly large number of young birds in the autumn, and then, too, the adult birds come down from the higher-lying districts to the lowlands. It used
HARMFUL
THE HEN-HARRIER.
to breed in the Fen-lands of East Anglia until the reclaiming of marsh lands drove it away. As to this I may be allowed to quote again here from an old ballad written before the fens were drained, it gives the feeling of the fen-dwellers of that day.
“Come brethren of the water, and let us all assemble,
To treat upon this matter which makes us quake and tremble;
For we shall rue it, if it be true that fens be undertaken,
And where we feed on fen and reed, they’ll feed both beef and bacon.
. . . . . . . .
The feathered fowl have wings, to fly to other nations,
But we have no such things to help our transportation;
We must give place—oh, grievous case—to hornéd beast and cattle,
Except that we can all agree to drive them out to battle.”