AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 37 



having seen a Buzzard or two occasionally in this 

 immediate neighbourhood ; the last, I feel pretty 

 certain, was in the summer of 1846, but I have been 

 assured by very many persons, older than myself, that 

 some sixty or seventy years ago it was as common as 

 the Kite, and bred regularly in our large woods. 

 Old John Milley, above mentioned as having shot 

 the Kite near Weldon, declared that he had shot 

 " scores of Buzzards of two kinds." The Ilev. M. 

 Berkeley kindly informs me that he remembers the 

 Common Buzzard as breeding commonly in Oundle 

 Wood, and I was informed by an old gamekeeper, 

 formerly in the service of Mr. Watts Russell, of 

 Biggin, that he used to kill two species of Buzzard, 

 not uncommonly, in that neighbourhood about 

 1823-21. To this other species I shall make refer- 

 ence further on. Another old gamekeeper, who had 

 been in the employ of my grandfather, my father, 

 and myself, and died some years ago at the supposed 

 age of 93, often told me that in his early days Marten 

 Cats, Kites, and two sorts of Buzzards were very 

 common, and that he " counted the Brown Buzzard 

 as very bad for young game and rabbits, far worse 

 nor the Kites." The Buzzard, though often to be 

 seen in the pairing-season soaring in the air, is a 

 somewhat sluggish bird, and sits in a tree on the 

 look-out for its prey — young rabbits, mice, rats, 

 moles, and young or wounded birds ; I do not know 

 that it will feed on carrion. 



The nests of this species which I have seen in this 

 country have all been in cliffs, and most of them in 

 spots very difficult of access, but in Spain, where the 

 bird is pretty common, I have found the nests 



