COMMON BUZZARD. 205 



very far apart, especially in districts where suitable 

 breeding-places are somewhat scarce, or the birds are 

 not molested. This bird most probably pairs for life, 

 and will breed in the same nest season by season if left 

 unmolested. The nest of this species is either made in 

 a tree a fir or a pine perhaps by preference, in our 

 islands but in districts where such are not common, as 

 for instance in the New Forest, an oak or a beech will 

 be selected. I have seen it in pines, on a flat branch 

 some distance from the trunk, and (four-and-twenty 

 years ago near Sheffield) up a tall oak in a wood, in a 

 fork close to the main stem. When on cliffs it is often 

 built amongst ivy, or under the shelter of a bush growing 

 from their sides, or in a fissure where the rocks overhang. 

 It is made at various heights, some being ninety or a 

 hundred feet from the ground, others not more than 

 twenty-five feet. The nest is a large, flat, bulky struc- 

 ture, made externally of sticks and twigs, and lined with 

 a scrap or two of down or wool, and a quantity of green 

 leaves. This habit of placing living leaf-decked twigs 

 in the nest is also common to the Sparrow-Hawk, but 

 not quite so apparent. This lining appears to be re- 

 newed from time to time until the young are reared, and 

 may be a crude attempt at mimicry to assimilate the 

 structure to surrounding foliage. The bird is a some- 

 what close sitter, but when disturbed frequently flies 

 round and round above the tree, uttering a monotonous 

 and plaintive cry. 



RANGE OF EGG COLOURATION AND MEASUREMENT : 

 The eggs of the Common Buzzard are usually three in 

 number, sometimes two, very rarely four. They vary 

 from white suffused with reddish-brown, to very pale 

 bluish-green in ground colour, blotched, clouded, spotted 

 and streaked with rich reddish-brown, and with under- 

 lying markings of violet-gray. They vary a good deal 



