e 
COMMON BUZZARD. | 35 
One very rarely sees a Kite now-adays in our customary 
field ramblings and observings; though, to be sure, some one 
did write word not long since to the “ Zoologist,” that he had 
seen one sailing overhead as he walked the streets of London. 
Perhaps any but rather resolute nest-hunters might say, if they 
knew the reception sometimes accorded by a Kite to a would- 
be plunderer of its nest, “ Well, the loss is not without its 
compensation.” For the Kite fights fiercely for its eggs or 
young; and has been known to inflict damage of both dress and 
person on a boy attempting to plunder its nest. It is a noble- 
looking bird; but not distinguished, as the Falcons are, for 
any very remarkable degree of boldness or courage. A fussy 
old hen has been known to frighten one from his purposed foray 
on her chickens, and he used of old to be chased (for sport, of 
course) by a species of Falcon “to the manner” trained. The 
nest, usually found high-up in a high tree in thick wood or 
forest, is made of sticks and lined with any softer material found 
handy, and contains two or three eggs of a dirty white colour, 
with a few spots or blotchings of dull red. They cater liberally 
enough for their young; no less than twenty-two Moles having 
been found in one nest.—Fig. 1, plate IT. 
17. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE—(Nawclerus furcatus). 
Very rarely seen indeed. 
18. COMMON BUZZARD—(Buteo vulgaris). 
Puttock. I well remember as a schoolboy in Essex, some 
thirty odd years ago, that the nests of the Puttock, as the 
Buzzard was invariably called in that district, were more fre- 
quently found by us than those of any other wood-building 
Hawk; and many a hatch of young Puttocks it fell to my lot to 
see brought within the old school-gates. Whether the Buzzard is 
equally abundant there now 1 cannot tell. It seems to me that 
