Common Buzzard 213 



Thk Common Buzzard {Bittco vulgaris, Leach). 



The Common Buzzard is not a ver\- popular member of the 

 Raptorial famih' with most writers. He is said to be sluggish and 

 torpid, sitting on a tree-stump watching for any passing prey, 

 following only the young and weak and sickly, and, failing such 

 simple prey, feeding on frogs or slow-worms or any other oddment 

 that comes to hand. 



Some of these authors go into ecstacies over the Eagle. The 

 majesty of his flight, as he soars in rising circles, far up in the blue 

 sky, with hardh' a beat of his pinions ; the glory of the scenic 

 surroundings, and so on. 



What is true of the Eagle is also true, to a large extent, of the 

 Buzzard. There is much the same flight, much the same scenery, 

 and much the same output of courage when they are engaged in 

 hunting for food. 



I happen to live in a district where both birds are 

 comparatively common. There it is frequently very difficult for 

 an expert observer to make sure whether the bird he is watching 

 is an Eagle or Buzzard, so similar is their flight, unless he can tell 

 the size of the bird he is watching. A soaring bird coming suddenly 

 into the field of vision cannot be identified at once as a Buzzard 

 or an Eagle. Presently one picks up the distance of the bird by 

 surrounding objects, and so gets a correct estimate of the size, and 

 then it is possible to say which bird it is. 



The Buzzard hunts for his prey in exactly the same way as the 

 Eagle, flying low and lazily over the lower slopes of the hill, in search 

 of leverets, rabbits (their main source of supply in Scotland), or a 

 sickly or wounded bird, or anything that a kind fate will put in his 

 path. That is exactly what the Eagle does ; he flies low and lazily 

 over the tops, looking for hares or ptarmigan, rests on a suitable 

 stone when he is tired, and waits for his food to come to him. 



But the Buzzard doesn't spend his day in lazy flights and 

 prolonged sojourns on a tree-stump. When he is not actually 

 engaged on the commissariat department, he soars away far up into 

 the heavens in ever-widening circles, filling the glen meanwhile with 

 the curious mewing cry which, to my ear, sounds half-way between 

 the cry of a Black-headed Gull and that of a domestic cat. 



W^hen the Buzzard is soaring, it is almost impossible to 

 differentiate him from the soaring Eagle, except by size, and it is 

 often difficult to determine the size of a bird seen at a great distance. 



In Suffolk, I think that the Common Buzzard is quite extinct 

 as a breeder, and I believe that its nest is now only found in some 

 of the wilder portions of England and Wales. In parts of the 

 Highlands it is still a fairly common resident. I know a glen in 



