FALCONID^.. 



THE COMMON BUZZARD. 



BuTEO VULGARIS, Leach. 



As regards the British Islands, the epithet ' common ' is annually 

 becoming less and less applicable to this species ; but there are 

 districts in England — especially in the west — as well as Wales, where 

 the bird may still be seen circling high in the air, and be heard 

 uttering its plaintive mewing cry. Sixty years ago it used to breed 

 in Norfolk and other eastern counties abounding with Partridges and 

 ground-game, without being considered incompatible with their 

 existence; but with the increase of Pheasant-worship the doom of 

 the Buzzard was sealed. In Scotland it is chiefly found in the 

 centre and west of the mainland, and a few pairs breed in the Inner 

 Hebrides, but the bird is very rare in the Orkneys and of doubtful 

 occurrence in the Shetlands. In Ireland it is almost extirpated as a 

 nesting-species, but is an occasional visitor from autumn to spring. 



The Common Buzzard appears to reach its northern breeding-limit 

 at about lat. 66° in Sweden ; while in Russia it is seldom found to 

 the east of the Baltic Provinces or of the Vistula, beyond which its 

 place is taken by the more rufous African Buzzard {B. deserioriun of 

 many authors) ; and Dr. Menzbier thinks that where the two forms 

 or species meet they interbreed. From Poland westward, however, 

 the Common Buzzard is generally distributed throughout Europe ; 



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