CHAPTER XXVI 



THE HILL BUZZARD 



To the eagle, one may say, the buzzard is first cousin. 

 Indeed, from the King of Birds it is not, at first glance, easy 

 to distinguish him, especially at a distance. He has the 

 same flight — though this is not so powerful — as the eagle, and 

 he soars tirelessly, as the latter bird, in the quiet summer air. 

 But against a winter's storm, or in any rough weather, he is 

 unable to rush forward with the strength of the eagle, for he 

 lacks the great power of this bird, and one does not often see 

 him abroad during wild weather. 



The distribution of the buzzard is different from that of 

 the eagle. In the central Scottish Highlands, where amongst 

 the highest hills the eagle rears his young, the buzzard is 

 entirely absent. But on the Atlantic seaboard, where the 

 coast is wild and rugged, although the hills are not generally 

 so high as farther inland, the buzzard almost entirely takes 

 the place of the golden eagle now that the erne or sea eagle 

 has been banished from the last of his western strongholds. 

 There is a certain Hebridean island where, along its 

 western seaboard, the buzzard may be seen any day, for here 

 these stately birds are really plentiful, and are but little 

 persecuted, for there is no game-preserving in these wild 

 parts. 



It is early in the springtide that the buzzards may be seen 

 at their courtship. One day early in March I passed through 

 a deep glen where several pairs of these birds make their 

 nests. After a night of frost the air was of a wonderful clear- 

 ness. On the north-lying faces of the lesser hills great 

 icicles showed where the burns had been caught in the grip 

 of the frost. On the higher hills the snow was dazzling 



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