16 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



The eggs are subject to considerable variation in colour and 

 size, some specimens being poorly marked, whilst others are very 

 richly blotched with dark red, or clouded and mottled with pale 

 brown. In some eggs the colouring is confined to a few large 

 rich blotches of red ; others are evenly spotted with colour, just 

 as intense over the entire surface. The handsomest type of egg 

 is the clouded variety. They vary from 2"25 to 2'1 inches in 

 length, and from 1"8 to 1'65 inch in breadth. 



THE COMMON BUZZAKD. 



(Buteo vulgaris.)* 

 Plate 3, Fig. 2. 



The Common Buzzard, though formerly pretty generally dis- 

 tributed throughout Great Britain and Ireland, is now confined 

 to a few of the larger forests, principally of Scotland and Wales, 

 and the sea-coasts where the rocks are lofty and precipitous. 

 Its range extends over the greater part of Europe, as far north as 

 66° in Scandinavia, and as far east as the Urals up to 59° N. lat. 



The foundation of the nest is of large twigs, finished at the top 

 with slender twigs : it is very flat, the hollow in the middle con- 

 taining the eggs being of about the size and depth of a soup-plate, 

 and it is lined with fresh green leaves, generally beech. Eggs 

 usually three, sometimes only two and not unfrequently four. 

 They vary very much in size and colour, and are rough in tex- 

 ture, and possess little or no gloss. The ground-colour varies 

 from milky-blue to pale reddish-white, blotched, streaked, spotted, 

 or clouded with rich brown surface-spots and pale lilac shell- 

 markings. Some specimens are most richly and handsomely 

 marked, others more sparingly, whilst many are almost devoid of 

 markings. A rather rare variety is finely streaked and scratched 

 over the smaller half of the egg with pale brown, with one or two 

 larger spots. In some the colour is confluent at the larger end, 

 whilst in others the rich brown colouring-matter is covered with 

 a thin coating of lime, giving the egg a beautiful delicate lilac- 

 pink appearance. In form the eggs vary considerably, some 

 specimens being almost round, others strictly oval, some elongated, 



* Buteo buteo— Sharpe, Handb. Brit. B., p. 147 (1895). 



