THE COMMON BUZZARD. 141 



species has also been shot by Mr. Aldridge's 

 gamekeeper, and it has been met with occasionally 

 still further to the eastward, between Ashdown 

 Forest and the borders of Kent. 



The common buzzard (Buteo vulguris] is far 

 more rare ; I have never been able to meet with 

 it among the woods where it was once a well- 

 known species, nor have I as yet succeeded in 

 obtaining one within the limits of the county.* I 

 have, however, examined two or three recent ex- 

 amples which had been shot in Sussex, and seen 

 a few cabinet specimens which were so highly 

 prized by their possessors as to be unattainable. 

 It would appear to be even more scarce in other 

 parts of England. Mr. Waterton speaks of it as 

 extinct in Yorkshire. He says, "In 1813 I had 

 my last sight of the buzzard ; " and the Rev. R. 

 Lubbock, in his ' Fauna of Norfolk,' considers it 

 equally rare in that county. He thus writes : 

 " The common buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) is in 

 these days anything but a common bird. Old 

 books of Natural History speak of it as the most 

 common of hawks. It is so no longer, its size 

 and sluggish habits expose it to observation, and 



* I have since received a Sussex-killed specimen, which 

 was shot in December, 1848, at Stanmer Park, by Mr. 

 Libbeter, the son of Lord Chichester's bailiff. 



