160 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



flapping flight, and pouncing down on it sud- 

 denly ; and it hunts the open moors and enclosures 

 in the valleys in preference to the skirts of the 

 former. Sometimes, however, the bird will sit 

 motionless, perhaps for hours together, on some 

 commanding pinnacle of rock or dead branch, until 

 some likely victim comes within the ken of its 

 keen eyes, when down it glides and easily snatches 

 its unsuspecting victim. 



Although the Buzzard nests alike in rocks and 

 trees, there is very little doubt that it is preferably 

 a branch-builder, seeing that should there exist in 

 close proximity a suitable wood and cliff, the former 

 is almost always selected. In Cambria, as a 

 matter of fact, fully 80 per cent, of nests are in 

 rocks, but then it must be remembered that the 

 majority of its Welsh haunts show far fewer woods, 

 and trees generally, than crags. Like the Kestrel, 

 however, and as the Raven used to do, the 

 Buzzard nests happily in either situation : some- 

 times a cliff-breeder has its alternative eyrie in an 

 adjoining covert. Probably young Buzzards 

 hatched in either of the two positions would be 

 constant to the same when the time came for their 

 own breeding. 



The Buzzard usually possesses from two to 

 four alternative nests, which in general are not 

 very far apart, though occasionally they are, or 

 some of them, as much as a mile or even more 

 away from one another, especially in areas where 



