BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 191 



By one means and another the collector has also done 

 his share, and the Buzzard has within the last half 

 century been enormously reduced in numbers as a British- 

 breeding bird. Now it is found only among some of the 

 wild and hilly regions of Great Britain — for instance, in 

 North Wales, the Lake District, the central and western 

 Highlands, and the Inner Hebrides. In Ireland it has 

 been almost, if not quite, exterminated, and only occurs as 

 a rather imcommon autumn migrant. 



In wooded districts the Buzzard often builds in trees ; 

 but among the hills, where most of its remaining British 

 haunts are, it chooses broad ledges on precipitous crags. 

 The nest is a bulky affair of sticks and the like. In this 

 the two to four eggs are laid in April, and incubated 

 by both birds for a matter of four Aveeks. The young 

 are of the usual type. Three points of interest about the 

 eggs of this species may be briefly mentioned. One is, 

 that the percentage of addled eggs is high. Has this any- 

 thing to do with the natm-e of the bird's food ? Secondly, 

 the eggs are often laid at intervals of some days, and the 

 earlier ones may be incubated to some extent before the 

 others are laid. Thus one chick may be hatched before 

 the others, and will, on accomit of his strength, obtain 

 most of the food brought to the nest, and may starve his 

 nest-fellow to death. One addled egg, one starved chick, 

 and one survivor is perhaps not an uncommon histoiy for 

 a Buzzard's clutch of three. Both these points are true of 

 many other species of the Order as well as of this. The 

 last point of interest to be noted is in connection with 

 the question of colour ; a great deal of individual varia- 

 tion is displayed both in the plumage of the birds and 

 in the colour of their eggs. The latter are whitish or 

 even bluish in ground-colour, and may be unspotted 

 altogether, or they may be marked with red in places. 



