BUTEO VULGARIS. 139 



which came up peering about at a good height while I was at the 

 Buzzard^s. 



§ 415. 77^ree.— Sutherlandshire, 21 May, 1849. " J. W. ipse." 



Hewitson, ' Eggs of British Birds,' ed. 3, pi. xiv. fig. 2. 



In a walk, on the 21st May, to the foot of Quenaig, after having 

 seen an Eagle, I came by some rocks very likely for Eagles, and where 

 Peter has since told me that there used to be an Eaglets nest, easily 

 accessible, the locality of which he showed me. Here I saw a bird 

 I supposed to be an Eagle, and a place like a nest. I fired a shot, 

 and out flew another bird from the nest, as I imagined. The place 

 was very easy for ropes, and I determined to fetch them to it next 

 morning. Luckily I looked again at the supposed nest, and, as it 

 did not seem Hke one, tried a little climbing. Taking off my shoes, 

 I soon got up to a narrow grassy ledge, along which I went till I 

 suddenly came upon the nest on the ledge, not where I had at first 

 fancied it was. I sprang to it, and saw three beautiful eggs. I rubbed 

 my eyes. They were so small ! Surely they were Buzzard's ! The 

 nest I looked at again, and the foundation had not sticks big enough 

 for an Eagle. The dead heather- stalks and the sedge [Luzula) lining 

 were all right, but they were equally so for a Buzzard. The plaintive 

 cry was now explained ; I had thought it odd in an Eagle. It was 

 provoking, but could not be helped. The birds flew within shot as I 

 was at the nest. The eggs, though not far from hatching, are quite 

 clean, and, two of them at least, beautifully marked. I took a bird's- 

 eye view of the little loch, and called at the shepherd's on my way 

 home. 



P.S. 1850. — I must here remark that it seems to me very difficult 

 to distinguish a Buzzard from a Golden Eagle in the flight. This 

 year, 1850, I at first thought I was looking at an Eagle overhead, 

 when I afterwards believed it was a Buzzard (this in the Clova 

 Mountains, Glen Phee) ; and the party subsequently came near a 

 nest, where the birds were making their cat-like mewing. In most 

 cases I have arrived at certainty as to the kind of bird I was looking 

 at, either by the size, the occasional shape into which Buzzards put 

 their wings, or, perhaps best, by the greater length of tail in the 

 Buzzard. The flap is, I think, very similar in both, and so the con- 

 tour of the wings. 



\ 416. 1^m;o.— Sutherlandshire, 24 May, 1849. "J. W. ipse:' 

 I went with a man to look for nests of Buzzard and Peregrine in the 



