Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
On page 444 the reader may see a representation of a pair of HARIER
HAWKS flying below the rock on which the peregrine falcon has
perched, and engaged in pursuing one of the smaller birds.
They have been introduced because several species of Harier are
to be found in Palestine, where they take, among the plains and
lowlands, the place which is occupied by the other hawks and falcons
among the rocks.
The name of Harier appears to be given to these birds on account of
their habit of regularly quartering the ground over which they fly
when in search of prey, just like hounds when searching for hares.
This bird is essentially a haunter of flat and marshy lands, where
it finds frogs, mice, lizards, on which it usually feeds. It does
not, however, confine itself to such food, but will chase and kill
most of the smaller birds, and occasionally will catch even the
leveret, the rabbit, the partridge, and the curlew.
When it chases winged prey, it seldom seizes the bird in the air,
but almost invariably keeps above it, and gradually drives it to
the ground. It will be seen, therefore, that its flight is mostly
low, as suits the localities in which it lives, and it seldom
soars to any great height, except when it amuses itself by rising
and wheeling in circles together with its mate. This proceeding
generally takes place before nest-building. The usual flight is a
mixture of that of the kestrel and the falcon, the Harier sometimes
poising itself over some particular spot, and at others shooting
forwards through the air with motionless wings.
Unlike the falcons and most of the hawks, the Harier does not as a
rule perch on rocks, but prefers to sit very upright on the ground,
perching generally on a mole-hill, stone, or some similar elevation.
Even its nest is made on the ground, and is composed of reeds,
sedges, sticks, and similar matter, materials that can be procured
from marshy land. The nest is always elevated a foot or so from the
ground, and has occasionally been found on the top of a mound more
than a yard in height. It is, however, conjectured that in such
cases the mound is made by one nest being built upon the remains of
another. The object of the elevated nest is probably to preserve the
eggs in case of a flood.
At least five species of Hariers are known to exist in the Holy
Land, two of which are among the British birds, namely, the Marsh
Harier (_Circus æruginosus_), sometimes called the Duck Hawk and
the Moor Buzzard, and the Hen Harier (_Circus cyaneus_), sometimes
called the White Hawk, Dove Hawk, or Blue Hawk, on account of the
plumage of the male, which differs greatly according to age; and the
Ring-tailed Hawk, on account of the dark bars which appear on the
tail of the female. All the Hariers are remarkable for the circlet
of feathers that surrounds the eyes, and which resembles in a lesser
degree the bold feather-circle around the eye of the owl tribe.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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