CHAPTER X. 



THE ONCE-COMMON BUZZARD. 



WERE the average nature-lover asked the present- 

 day status of the once-Common Buzzard* in Britain, 

 he would probably aver without hesitation that it 

 was, if slightly more prosperous, in much the 

 same pitiable condition as the Kite. Not so long 

 ago, in fact, a good ornithologist, in one of his 

 books, included the bird amongst our vanishing 

 species. As a fact, however, the Buzzard is 

 happily very far from being extinct, nor is it ever 

 likely to become so, though, admittedly, it is 

 extremely local, and taking our islands as a 

 whole distinctly rare. It would be safe to reckon 

 it in the first score of our regular but scarce 

 breeding species. 



Taking England first, a good few pairs are still 

 left to the Lake District, where it is certainly not 

 decreasing, while possibly Yorkshire can still show 

 an eyrie or two. Thence 'tis a far cry to the 

 bird's next regular haunts the woods and sea- 

 cliffs of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, 

 and perhaps some of the hills and woodlands of 

 Monmouth, Hereford, and Gloucester as well. 



(L.) 



