134 THE COMMON BUZZARD. 



It is sometimes called glead, kite, and puttock. It is rather 

 larger than the peregrine falcon, but not so compact. When 

 soaring it is easily known from that bird by the large white patches 

 ,uncler the wings. Selby says it is shot in France during winter, 

 and is " esteemed delicious eating." It is more common on 

 inland than on the sea-coast, although it breeds on the Island of 

 May, on the high ledges on the west side. About fifty-five 

 years ago it bred in the large woods of Stravithie, Kinglassie, 

 Priorsmuir, and Allanhill — part of the famous Oursus Apri, ox 

 Boar's Chase — a tract of land from Pitmillie Burn to Dairsie, 

 about eleven miles long by five miles broad — originally a gift to 

 the so-called Church by one of our early Scottish kings ; and, 

 even in my time, this Priorsmuir was the centre of a wild tract 

 of dense woods, whins, and heather, in which, besides the 

 buzzard and kite and their nests — then as common as sparrow- 

 hawks — I have seen the deer running wild. And, no doubt, long 

 before, when the imposing Cathedral stood in its entirety, and 

 the proud Priory was in full swing, many a time would the 

 prior and his canons walk or drive out to it as a favourite 

 hunting-ground — at least it was for the buzzards and other birds 

 of prey — for this wide district of wood at one time extended to 

 Denino, Cameron, Kinaldy, Lochty, Lingo, and Watterless — 

 embracing a (hunting-ground for the buzzard of about fifty square 

 miles. Latterly, this Priorsmuir was turned into a foxes' cover — 

 about 1869 — through which now runs the St Andrews and 

 Anstruther railway, where, fifty years ago, I have cut trees, 

 unchecked, for the gallery of a boys' dramatic club. The buzzard 

 makes its large nest of sticks and twigs, rudely lined with wool and 

 grass, on large trees in woods, or on the ledges of rocks. The 

 eggs, three or four — the colour and size vary according to the 

 age of the bird — are about 2 \ by 1| inches, from a plain 

 greenish white to deeply spotted and blotched with reddish 

 brown ; as a rule the older the bird the darker the egg. The 

 young, like the rest of the tribe, are at first covered with 

 whitish down. The general colour of the male on the upper 

 parts is brown, glossed with purple ; the head and hind neck 

 streaked with yellowish white; the bases of the loose downy 

 feathers are white. The tail, which is 9 inches long and square, 

 is marked with ten or twelve brown bars. The bill is bluish 

 black ; the cere and irides lemon yellow ; legs and toes blight 

 yellow. The female is darker and more uniformly brown than 

 the male, and the lower surface of the wings darker than the male, 

 which makes the large white patch still more conspicuous. The 



