30 
BUZZARD. 
Buteo vulgaris, FLEMING. 
Falco buteo, PENNANT. 
SB ULCO— leer ss tsece ? Vulgaris—Common. 
Dr. JoHnson assigns as the meaning of the word Buzzard, 
‘a degenerate or mean species of Hawk,’ but being by no 
meaus one of the admirers of the author of the Dictionary, I 
shall take leave to differ as much from the present as trom 
another well-known definition of his touching the ‘gentle art,’ 
of which for many years 1 have been a professor. 
The Buzzard is plentifully distributed over nearly the whole 
of the continent of Europe, and is also found in North America, 
and in the more northern parts of Africa. It inhabits Spain 
and Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia, Holland 
_ and France, but does not appear to be known in the Orkney 
or Shetland Islands. In England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, 
it is sufficiently abundant, affecting both the wildest and the 
most cultivated districts, but in both taking a more than 
ordinary care to choose such situations as will either exempt 
it from the intrusion, or enable it to have timely notice of 
the approach of an enemy. Still, with all its precautions, 
and with every aid that its own instinct and the most retired 
or the most rugged localities can afford, it, hke too many 
others of our native birds, is gradually becoming more rare. 
The advancement of agriculture upon grounds heretofore wild 
and uncultivated, the natural consequence of an increase of 
population within a fixed circumference, and other causes, 
contributing to this fact, which at all events a naturalist must 
lament. 
The Buzzard is found in a variety of situations, such as 
rocky cliffs, chases, parks where timber abounds, or in ‘ci 
devant’ forests. It remains in England throughout the year, 
but, nevertheless, is partially migratory. 
I am much indebied to my liberal-minded friend, Arthur 
Strickland, Esq., of Bridlington-Quay, for the following striking 
