22 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



great bird come tumbling earthwards. It was completely 

 disembowelled by the bullet ! 



Stewart, the stalker on Achmore Estate, Perthshire, 

 informs me that one day he watched a mountain hare 

 defending itself against the attacks of an eagle. The 

 eagle kept swooping down upon it, at which the hare 

 would stand up on its hind legs and box vigorously with 

 its forepaws. This in all probability was a case of a mother 

 hare defending her young. Very few animals make any 

 attempt at self defence when an eagle descends upon 

 them. 



It is, I suppose, a big step from the eagle to the common 

 buzzard, yet the two have many points in common, and 

 to watch a buzzard in the air is almost equivalent to behold- 

 ing a small eagle. Periodically the question crops up as 

 to whether the buzzard is really harmful on grouse moors, 

 and I would like to present my views without in any 

 sense anticipating their general acceptance. That buzzards 

 have once or twice been shot in the act of feeding on adult 

 grouse I am well aware, but so far as I know there has 

 never been an observed instance of a buzzard actually 

 striking down a grouse. Indeed, on the few occasions 

 of which I have heard when these birds have been seen 

 to rise from a grouse meal, there was not the least evidence 

 to show that the grouse had not (i) died from more or 

 less natural causes, or (2) been killed and left by weasel 

 or peregrine. Both the last named kill a good deal of 

 game which they leave practically or entirely untouched, 

 and it is only natural that a buzzard would feed on dead 

 grouse or even wounded grouse just as readily as it would 

 feed on anything else found about the moor. 



Has anyone ever seen a buzzard strike down an able- 

 bodied grouse ? If so, it would be very interesting to 

 know how the bird of prey achieved the feat. Anyone 

 who has watched buzzards hunting, as I have watched 



