130 THE COMMON BUZZARD. 



The Common Buzzard. 



Buteo Vulgaris (Falco Buteo.) Linn. 



" The sheepboy whistled loud, — and, lo ! 

 That instant, startled by the shock, 

 The buzzard mounted from the rock 

 Deliberate and slow, 

 Lord of the air, he took his flight." — Wordstvorth. 



This is a picture in the sky now seldom seen. 



The common buzzard is generally distributed in Britain. It 

 feeds on all sorts of small quadrupeds, such as mice, moles, 

 leverets, and young rabbits ; and on reptiles, insects, worms, 

 young and wounded birds, and carrion. Its food — as disclosed 

 by its stomach (by Macgillivray) — consists of " the mole, short and 

 long tailed mice, shrews, young birds, red grouse, grey partridge, 

 small birds, lizards, beetles, larvae, and large worms." In one 

 instance he found the " stomach filled with worms, and another 

 with leaves of plants and roots, beetles, and an earth-worm. 

 The mole is sometimes found swallowed entire, and mice 

 generally swallowed whole." Thus, like the kestrel, it is of 

 great service to the farmer. It is carefully computed that each 

 buzzard and owl will destroy no fewer than from 6,000 to 8,000 

 mice annually. 



In the spring of 1885, 400 buzzards were shot in the environs 

 of a town in Germany, and, making calculation from ascertained 

 facts, no less than three million of mice had been spared by the 

 senseless slaughter of these valuable birds. Next year the mice 

 appeared in multitudes — like one of the plagues of Egypt — and, 

 by the destruction of the crops, revenged the foolish policy of 

 killing their natural enemies and interfering with Nature's wise 

 and perfect universal laws. Wordsworth truly says — 



" Nature never did betray the heart that loved her." 

 This year (March 1892), several long articles appeared in the 

 Scotsman on " The mice plague in the Border Counties," from 

 which I quote — 



" The magnitude of this plague is not realised, even by those most con- 

 cerned. Five years ago the mice attack was limited to two or three farms 

 in Selkirkshire ; to-day they are in possession of nearly all the best hill 

 pastures in the Counties of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Dumfries. They have 

 also done serious damage in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, and it is feared 

 they have made good their hold in the adjoining Counties of Peebles, Ayr, 



