THE BUZZARD. 303 



has informed me that one was shot at Nisbet, in May 1878 ; 

 and in October 1872, Mr. Turnbull, of Abbey St. Bathans, 

 showed me a beautiful specimen, which had been killed a 

 few years before that date by Mr. W. Mark Elliot, on the 

 march between Primrosehill and The Eetreat. Mr. Hunter, of 

 Anton's Hill, wrote to me on the 18th of January 1886, that 

 a Buzzard had been shot two days previously by his game- 

 keeper, on the banks of the Leet, below Belchester House. 

 An unusual number of birds of this species visited the 

 county in the following autumn. One was observed for 

 some days in the third week of October, frequenting the 

 neighbourhood of Oatleycleugh and Cockburn Law; and 

 about the 22nd of that month it was caught by the game- 

 keeper at Cockburn. Having seen it rise from a rabbit 

 in a trap, which it had killed on the moor, by the side of 

 the Eller Burn, he set the trap close to the prey, and the 

 Buzzard was caught in the course of an hour, on returning 

 to its repast. On the 12th of November following, another 

 was taken in a similar manner on Kimmerghame estate, in 

 a field adjoining the Berwick road ; and, on the afternoon 

 of the same day, while driving to Wedderburn, I saw one 

 alight on a tree by the side of the public road leading from 

 Nabdean to Fishwick. It was followed by two Books which 

 were buffeting it, and, after resting for a short time on its 

 perch, within thirty yards of my horse's head, it flew slowly 

 away to the Paxton woods. A few weeks afterwards, a bird of 

 this kind was seen in the Pistol Plantations by Dr. Stewart. 

 The Buzzard feeds upon rabbits, moles, mice, and other 

 small quadrupeds, as well as birds and reptiles. It seems 

 to have a capacious throat, for, in a specimen dissected by 

 Mr. Walter Simson, Lauder, a mole was found, which had 

 been swallowed entire.^ It is not very destructive to 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 301. 



