13g BOTEO Vm^GARIS. 



times balancing himself over a spot. Should he spy Jt 

 grouse, a young lapwing, a reptile, or a mouse, down 

 he comes upon it, be assured, not exactly like a shot, 

 but with sufficient force and precision to clutch his 

 prey, which he either devours on the spot, or carries 

 off to some safe retreat or convenient station^ When 

 not disposed to continue his hunting excursion, he 

 sometimes mounts to a great height, and seems to 

 amuse himself with sailing quietly along in circles, 

 precisely in the manner of an eagle, his wings spread 

 out at right angles to the body, and curved a little up- 

 wards. In the autumn of 1832, I was much pleased 

 with the sight of several buzzards sailing in this manner 

 over the upper part of the valley of Moffat Water, on 

 the confines of the counties of Dumfries and Selkirk. 

 At first I took them for eagles, but soon discovered 

 my mistake; and, in fact, at an uncertain distance, one 

 finds it difficult to distinguish the one species from the 

 other. He knows, it is true, that an eagle is larger 

 than a buzzard, but as he cannot with much precision 

 estimate distances in the air, and as the form and flight 

 of the two birds are much alike, a wiser man than a 

 cockney traveller or a fire-side naturalist might note in 

 his journal that he had seen a flight of eagles, when in 

 reality he had seen only buzzards. 



When his sailings are over, or his predatory excur- 

 sions ended, he betakes himself to some retired place, 

 whether the pinnacle of a crag, or the branch of a de- 

 cayed tree, but more commonly the former, and there 

 doses in quiet, or keeps an eye on what may be passing 

 around him. That he takes his stand in a particular 

 spot, as is alleged by authors, and waits patiently until 

 3 



