COM3ION BUZZARD. 559 



The length 14 inches. (The male about 10 inches long). The dorsal 

 aspect dull, dusky yellowish-brown, varied by spots and short trans- 

 verse bars of dull wood-brown. Feathers of the crown centred 

 with blackish-brown ; the plumage of the neck lighter. On the 

 back, wing and tail coverts, the wood-brown forms one or two pairs 

 of roundish, ill defined spots on each feather and on the scapulars, 

 bars. The primaries with from 5 to 7 pair of wood-brown spots, 

 those on the outer webs small, irregular, and near the shafts. The 

 tail paler and duller than the back, except at the end where it is also 

 tipped with soiled white, and crossed by 5 narrow bars of the same 

 color. — The throat white ; cheeks, sides of the neck and breast, 

 brownish-white, streaked lengthways with dark liver-brown. Belly 

 and thighs white, with yellowish-brown streaks on the shafts. Flanks 

 and wing linings, yellowish-brown with oval white marks. Quills 

 barred alternately on the inside with dull brown and wine-yellow. 

 Under tail coverts white. Bill bluish-black. 2d [and 3d quills 

 longest. — Female. 



COMMON BUZZARD. 



(Falco buteo, Linn. Buteo vulgaris, Rich, and Swains. North. Zoo]. 



ii. p. 47. pi. 27. [male.] Plain Falcon, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 



207. No 103 ? [young female ?] F. obsoletus, Lath. Ind. i. sp. 



61..?) 

 Sp. Charact. — Blackish-brown; the tail darker, crossed by about 



7 bars ; below dull brown, paler on the belly and spotted, whitish 



on the vent : cere and feet yellow. — Female less bright on the 



belly, barred with blackish-bro\vn ; and with the cere and legs 



bluish-livid. 



The Common Buzzard, according to Richardson, ar- 

 rives in the fur countries about the middle of April : soon 

 after it builds its nest, and having reared its young, departs 

 about the end of September. It haunts alluvial lands by 

 the banks of streams, where on the bough of a tree it sits 

 watching patiently for the approach of some diminutive 

 quadruped, bird or reptile. On espying its prey, it glides 

 of, and sweeping easily but rapidly down, seizes it in its 



