116 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus BUTEO. 
The genus Buteo was established by Cuvier in 1800, in his ‘ Legons 
d’Anatomie comparée,’ i. tab. 2. Previous to that date the Buzzards were 
included in the genus Falco of Linnzeus. Cuvier did not designate any 
type ; nor has any later writer in any subsequent subdivision of the genus 
done so. It is impossible to say what species was considered typical by 
Cuvier ; but it is perfectly obvious that the Common Buzzard (the F. buteo 
of Linnzus) ought to have been so considered, and we cannot do wrong in 
so accepting it. 
The Buzzards are very nearly allied to the Eagles, forming a connecting 
link between them and the Harriers and the Hawks. From the Eagles 
they may be distinguished by having no feathers on the lower half of the 
tarsus, which is scaled before and behind, a character they have in common 
with the Harriers and the Hawks. From the former they are distinguished 
by their thick tarsus (circumference about one third of length), and from 
the latter by their long wings and short tarsus (less than a fourth the 
length of the wing, and less than half the length of the first primary). 
In their habits the Buzzards very closely resemble the Eagles, being, as a 
rule, somewhat heavy in flight, rarely catching their food upon the wing. 
They feed upon reptiles, mice, and other small mammals, insects, and 
occasionally birds, which they catch when sitting. They build a mode- 
rate-sized nest of sticks &c., which is sometimes placed on trees, and 
sometimes on rocks. They lay from two to four eggs, greenish white or 
pure white in ground-colour, marked sparingly with reddish-brown and 
violet shell-markings. When held up to the light the shells of Buzzards’ 
eggs look green. The Buzzards, of which there are twenty or more species, 
are almost cosmopolitan in their range, but are seldom found north of 
the Arctic circle. But one species is found in the British Islands. 
