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indeed, the natural presumption is, that Blyth is right, and that 
I am wrong, and that it does so occur. Still I have thought it 
necessary to put my own doubts on the subject prominently 
forward, in view to stimulating enquiry. 
Of the nidification of the common Buzzard in India, nothing 
has been recorded. Of its nidification in Great Britain, I take 
the following from Mr, Yarrell: “In Scotland, the Buzzard 
forms its nest on rocks, or on the edges of steep scars or beds 
of torrents; one nest described by Mr. MacGillivray, was placed 
on the top of a steep bank or rut of a stream, and was composed 
of twigs, heath, wool and some other substances. In England, 
the Buzzard usually builds, or takes to a nest, in the forked 
branches of a tree in a large wood; the materials with which 
the nest is made, or repaired, are similar to those that have 
been already named. 
The female lays two or three, and sometimes, four eggs, of a 
short oval form, two inches three lines in length, by one inch 
and ten lines in breadth, of a soiled white colour, slightly spotted 
with pale brown.” 
Mr. Hewitson tells us that, where trees are available, its nest 
is built on them, and is composed of sticks ined with a quan- 
tity of wool, fur and such like soft materials, but that in Scot- 
land, where it inhabits treeless districts, it makes its nest, 
(which is very much like an Hagle’s, except in size,and lined with 
the same kind of dry grass,) upon the ledges of rocks. He 
further tells us, that the eggs, which are three or four in number, 
vary according to the age of the bird, (I wonder whether this 
is a well ascertained fact) and are sometimes spotless white. 
He mentions one egg as beautifully colored, with different tints 
of lilac and purple, as also that eggs were brought to a friend 
of his, for several successive years from the same locality, and 
doubtless the produce of the same pair, which the first year 
were white, or nearly so, the second year slightly marked with 
indistinct yellowish brown, increasing each year in the intensity 
of their colouring, till the spots became ofa rich dark brown. The 
two egos which he figures are broad ovals, (one of them indeed 
is almost spherical) and measure 2°33 & 1°84, and 2°08 xX 1°77. 
The one is boldly blotched and spotted, with clear brownish 
red, (in which a few dark lines are mingled) and reddish fawn 
colour, on a pale bluish white, but somewhat soiled ground, the 
markings being almost exclusively confined, to the broad-end 
half of the egg ; and the other is more thickly clouded, streaked 
and spotted, with pale brownish red and purplish black, on a 
ground almost entirely over clouded with reddish fawn. 
Dr. Jerdon gives the wing of the female of this species at 18 
inches ; this seems to me too large. Mr. Yarrell gives it at 
