150 PAPERS, ETC. 
brown, 1 inch 7 lines in length, and about 1 inch 3 
lines in breadth. It more commonly takes posses- 
sion of some deserted nest of the crow or magpie, 
than makes one for itself; the young are in general 
hatched by the beginning of May. 
ACCIPITER. 
3.—Accipiter fringillarius.— Sparrow Hawk. 
This bird is not perhaps more rare than its congener the 
kestrel, but is less likely to be observed from its 
habit of gliding noiselessiy over low hedges, never 
hovering suspended in the air, like the before men- 
tioned hawk. Its eggs are very beautiful, being of 
a pale blue ground colour, sparingly blotched with 
deep chocolate brown, in size the same as those of 
the kestrel; and like them this species seldom pre- 
pares a nest on its own account, preferring those of 
the crow. 
BUTEO. 
4.—Buteo vulgaris. — Common Buzzard. 
The ranks of this noble but destructive hawk, have been 
sadly thinned by game-keepers, to whom they prove 
a formidable enemy. A few may still however be 
seen among the ranges of the Quantocks. Wheeling 
and gliding at an immense height, with the extra- 
ordinary powers of vision these birds are known to 
possess, what a field of view must be opened to them! 
the mountains in Wales, and the lofty ranges of 
Yorkshire and Cumberland are before them ; a few 
strokes of their powerful wings, and they would be 
beyond the reach of those who think a hawk fair 
game for every destructive contrivance invented. 
That these birds do at times breed on some inacces- 
