SHORT-WINGED BUZZARD. 101 



in which it lays only 2 or 3 whitish eggs, waved with 

 greenish, and spotted with yellowish. But, if deficient 

 in courage, it is not so in natural affection, feeding and 

 tending its young with much assiduity ; and even the 

 male, according to Ray, on the death of the female, pa- 

 tiently feeds and rears the brood till able to provide for 

 themselves. 



According to Buffon, a Mr. Fontaine succeeded in 

 taming and domesticating a Buzzard, so completely that 

 he exhibited a real attachment to his master, attended at 

 the dinner-table, caressing with his head and bill. He 

 managed to conquer the dogs and cats of the house, 

 seizincr the food from them when there were several 

 together ; and, as a last resort, when hard pushed by his 

 assailants, took wing with a tone of exultation. He had 

 also a singular antipathy to red caps, which he dexter- 

 ously snatched from the heads of the working peasantry 

 without being perceived ; he likewise purloined wigs in 

 the same manner, and after carrying this strange booty 

 to the tallest tree of an adjoining park, he left them there 

 without injury. Although he sometimes attacked the 

 neighbouring poultry, he lived on amicable terms with 

 those of his master, bathing even among the chickens 

 and ducklings without offering them the least injury. 



The length of this species, according to Pennant, is 26 inches. 

 This must doubtless be the female, which I have found about 25 

 inches ; the male is only 20 inches. The bill is dusky, and the 

 cere yellow. The head and hind part of the neck is brown, broadly 

 edged with white, or brownish white. The back, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts dark brown edged with ferruginous ; the rump brown, 

 but the immediate tail coverts as well as the scapulars are barred 

 with white below the surface. The 3 first primaries black, white at 

 their bases and notched on their inner vanes ; the 3d primary a very 

 little longer than the Ath ; the inner vanes of all the rest of the quills 

 barred but not to their edges, the intervening white bars above 

 strongly tinged with ferruginous. Throat, breast, and belly, ferru- 

 9* 



