COMMON BUZZARD. 121 
In some parts of South Wales the Buzzard breeds on the cliffs. Dr. 
Propert has kindly furnished me with particulars of eight nests, all built 
on the rocks overlooking the sea on the coast of St. Bride’s Bay, in Pem- 
brokeshire. They were taken in 1876 and the two following years ; the 
earliest date was the 19th of April, and the latest the 9th of May. Two 
were on the cliffs of the mainland, near St. David’s Head, and the other 
six on Ramsey Island. The rocks were almost perpendicular, and in four 
cases they were overhanging. The cliffs rise from three to four hundred 
feet above the sea. In every case the nests were almost inaccessible, and 
could only be reached by letting a boy down with a rope; and where the 
nests were under an overhanging rock, the eggs could only be secured with 
a net fastened to the end of a stick. One nest, a large one, was a slight 
hollow, with sticks carefully disposed around it. Another nest was under 
some thorn-bushes, and a third in a very damp place where water was 
trickling down. One nest contained four eggs, and six nests contained 
three eggs each. The eggs varied somewhat in size; and in one of the 
nests the third egg was abnormally small. Some clutches were much more 
handsomely coloured than others. In two cases the eggs were perfectly 
fresh ; but in one taken on the Ist of May they were almost hatched. In 
the ‘Ootheca Wolleyana’ is also an interesting account of the nesting of 
the Buzzard on rocks in Sutherlandshire. 
Three seems to be the usual number of eggs, sometimes only two, and 
not unfrequently four. They vary very much in size and colour, are rough 
in texture, and possess little or no gloss. Common Buzzards’ eggs vary 
from milky blue to pale reddish white in ground-colour, blotched, streaked, 
spotted, or clouded with rich brown surface-spots and pale lilac shell-mark- 
ings. Some specimens are most richly and handsomely marked, others 
more sparingly, whilst many are almost devoid of markings. Many speci- 
mens very closely resemble certain varieties of the Common Kite’s, others 
the pale and spotless eggs of the Goshawk. A rather rare variety is 
finely streaked and scratched over the smaller half of the egg with pale 
brown, with one or two larger spots. In some the colour is confluent on 
the larger end, whilst in others the rich brown colouring-matter is covered 
with a thin coating of lime, giving the egg a beautiful delicate lilac-pink 
appearance. In form the Buzzard’s eggs vary considerably, some speci- 
mens being almost round, others strictly oval, some elongated, and more 
rarely elliptical. In size they vary from 2} to 2 inches in length, and 
from 1-9 to 1-65 inch in breadth. 
The peculiar motion of the Buzzard’s flight has been noticed by the 
earliest writers on British birds, who speak of its rising in the air to a 
great elevation in a spiral course. So much did this motion on the 
Buzzard’s part impress itself upon Forster, that he gave the bird the name 
of spiralis. In passing from place to place the Buzzard flies very slowly, 
