13 



BUZZAKD. 



PLATE VII. 



Buteo vulgaris, FLEMING. 



Falco buteo, PENNANT. 



THE Buzzards pair in the beginning of March, and may then be 

 seen wheeling about, and often at a great height above the place of 

 their intended abode, f in measured time/ in slow and graceful flight. 



The nest, which is built of large and small sticks, and is lined, 

 sometimes plentifully, and sometimes sparingly, with wool, moss, heather, 

 fur, hair, or some such soft substance, is placed both on trees in large 

 woods, and also in the clefts and fissures of cliffs, and on ledges of 

 such, and of mountains; in the latter case, in the most secure and 

 difficult situations. One, in particular, I well remember in a most 

 admirably chosen recess, out of all possible reach, except by being 

 lowered down to it by a rope. Not unfrequently, to save itself the 

 trouble of making a nest of its own, it will appropriate, and repair 

 sufficiently for its purpose, an old and forsaken one of some other 

 bird, such as a Jackdaw, a Crow, or a Raven, and will also frequently 

 return to its own of the preceding year. 



The eggs are two, three, or four in number, generally the former, 

 and rather inclined to a rotundity of form. They are of a dull greenish 

 or bluish white, streaked and dotted, more especially at the thicker 

 end, with yellowish or pale brown. Sometimes they are perfectly 

 white. 



Mr. Hewitson states that Mr. R. R. Wingate had the eggs of the 

 Buzzard brought to him from the same place for several successive 

 years, no doubt, he thinks, the produce of the same bird. The first 

 year they were white, or nearly so; the second year marked with 

 indistinct yellowish brown, and increasing each year in intensity of 

 colouring, till the spots became of a rich dark brown. 



