THE COMMON BUZZARD 161 



the bird is scarce, or where no convenient site 

 exists close to that one already containing one or 

 more eyries. Nests in trees, and periodically those 

 in crags, are sometimes used for from two to six 

 years in succession, though generally two or 

 three are occupied alternately. I know of one 

 pair of Buzzards, however, which laid in five different 

 eyries in a like number of springs. 



When built in a tree, such as an oak, ash, or a 

 beech (the oak is the favourite), the nest is placed 

 either in a fork of the main stem (very often in 

 the second or third good one up), or just as fre- 

 quently in the crotch of a projecting limb. If, 

 however, a fir or larch is selected, then it is situate 

 close to the trunk on several horizontal branchlets, 

 as a Sparrow-Hawk's abode so. often is; on a 

 big protruding bough ; or in the broad, flat crown 

 of the tree. A tree near the margin of a wood is 

 preferred to one in the interior, particularly if 

 the trees are unduly close together. In a 

 hanger ' ' the nest must normally be sought in 

 the bottom half. Apart from woods, odd eyries 

 may be found in plantations (large or small), in 

 clumps of trees, and even in isolated trees in 

 hedgerows or elsewhere. I remember one nest in 

 a small mountain-ash jutting almost horizontally 

 from a steep outcrop of rock ; I have seen another 

 in one little more than a bush in stature growing 

 in solitary state on the confines of a moor. 



Cliff eyries (especially those in sheer cliffs) 



M 



