hen harrier


nounBritish.

Origin of hen harrier

1
First recorded in 1555–65

Words Nearby hen harrier

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hen harrier in a sentence

  • The hen-harrier breeds only in the Orkneys and the Outer Hebrides.

    Birds in Flight | W. P. Pycraft
  • She at length found her way to the dead hen harrier, as it lay on a slab of flagstone.

    The Pilots of Pomona | Robert Leighton
  • The one in question, Lucien said, was the “marsh-hawk,” sometimes also called the “hen-harrier.”

  • The species that we shall allude to here is the hen harrier.

  • When out grouse shooting one day I saw a hen-harrier strike and kill a grouse just beyond gunshot.

    Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire | John H. Dixon, F.S.A. Scot

British Dictionary definitions for hen harrier

hen harrier

noun
  1. a common harrier, Circus cyaneus, that flies over fields and marshes and nests in marshes and open land: US and Canadian names: marsh hawk, marsh harrier

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