Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/490

 476 HARKING HARRINGTON surface and the under wing coverts white. In the young birds the upper parts are dark hrown, with dull rufous edges to many of the feathers; under parts reddish white, with brown stripes, and upper tail coverts white. It is found throughout North America from Mexico to the arctic regions, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in Cuba. It breeds in most parts of the United States, and is often seen' in flocks of 20 or 30. When paired, the sexes keep together, and assist each other in the care of the young. The nest is generally made on the ground, previously scooped out, of dried grasses, and of considerable bulk ; some- times they build in low bushes. The eggs, about four, are rounded, smooth, If by 1 in., bluish white, with a few marks of pale reddish brown. The bird skims over the open fields, diligently searching for food, which consists of crickets, lizards, frogs, snakes, and small birds and quadrupeds ; it is fond of visiting remote poultry yards after young chickens and gos- Bing-tailed Harrier (Circus cyaneus). lings, though a hen of ordinary courage is usu- ally able to drive it off ; it rarely strikes its victims on the wing. The ring-tailed harrier of Europe is the C. cyaneus (Linn.) ; there are also Montagu's harrier (C. cineraceus, Mont.) and the moor or marsh harrier (G. ceruginosus, Linn.), having similar habits with the Ameri- can species. II tltKI VI. Harro Panl, a German author, born at Ibensdorf, near Ilusum, in Schleswig, Aug. 28, 1798, died by his own hand in the island of Jersey, May 25, 1870. He was the son of a landed proprietor of Friesland, but received only a scanty education, and was obliged to accept a small clerkship in the custom house. Subsequently he devoted himself to painting and literature in various places, and after pub- lishing two volumes of poetry at Schleswig in 1821 he wrote a sketch of his adventurous life and travels entitled Rhonghar Jarr, Fahr- ten eines Friesen in Danemark, Deutschland, Ungarn, &c. (4 vols., Munich, 1828). In 1828 he joined a Philhellenic expedition to Greece, but soon went to Rome, and next to Warsaw, where he served for a few months in the army. His Polish experiences w^ere embodied in his novel Der Pole (3 vols., Baireuth, 1831), and in his Memoiren uber Polen unter russiscJier Herrschaft (2 vols., Nuremberg, 1831 ; French, Strasburg, 1833). On account of his revolu- tionary tendencies he was subsequently ex- pelled from Bavaria and Saxony, and in 18:] he was arrested in Bern and sent to England, where in 1837 he was wounded in a duel. I ir next attempted to publish in Heligoland revo- lutionary songs for circulation in G ermany, but was arrested and sent back to England. On returning to that island in 1839 he was sent as a prisoner on a vessel bound to England, but jumping overboard he was picked up by a French ship, and afterward lived successively in England, Brazil, and the United States. In 1849 he arrived in Norway, whence he was ex- pelled in the following year. He then became a member of the European central democratic committee in London, to which city he returned in 1856 after having been in 1854 under arrest in Harburg, and after having spent again some time in Brazil. Although he occasionally re- ceived assistance from his friends at subsequent periods, misery and discontent made him com- mit suicide. His v publications comprise, besides poems, plays, and miscellaneous writings, many novels, of which " Dolores," the scene of which was in South America, written in English and published in New York in 1844- (German, 4 vols., Basel, 1858-'9), is considered the best. HARRINGTON, James, an English political wri- ter, born at Upton, Northamptonshire, in Jan- uary, 1611, died in Westminster, Sept. 11, 1677. He entered Trinity college, Oxford, in 1629, and after leaving the university travelled on the continent, visiting France, Italy, and the Hague, where he entered Lord Craven's regi- ment, then quartered in that city. On his re- turn to England he lived for a time in retire- ment, but in 1 646 was appointed to wait upon Charles I. during his confinement. The king became strongly attached to him, and made him groom of the bedchamber; and Harring- ton, though a republican in theory, became loyal to the person of the monarch, follow- ing him even to the scaffold. * After the death of Charles he composed his great work, the " Ocenna," which was seized by order of Cromwell while in the press ; but he was finally permitted to publish it in 1656, and even to dedicate it to Cromwell himself. The " Oceana" is a kind of political romance, like Plato's "Republic" and the "Utopia" of Sir Thomas More, in which Harrington describes an imaginary ideal republic. It attracted much attention, and was answered by several persons, the principal work written in reply being Baxter's "Holy Commonwealth." In 1659 Harrington published an abridgment of his work, under the title of "The Art of. Law- giving," and instituted a club called the " Rota"