THE COMMON BUZZARD 169 



paratively lowland areas. What most probably 

 happens is this : the largest bird pushes the 

 other out of the nest inadvertently, for remember 

 the structure is very flat, remember, too, that 

 fresh material is universally added to the rim of 

 the eyrie daily, as though to provide against such 

 accidents, right up to that day on which the young 

 leave it for good. Then again, I have on several 

 occasions found a young Buzzard in an advanced 

 stage of decomposition on the ground beneath an 

 eyrie, a fact which goes far to disprove all ideas 

 of cannibalism. 



The Buzzard is sometimes a very close sitter, 

 especially with the eggs highly incubated, and 

 more especially if the eyrie is in some shady, 

 deeply indented gully in the rock-formation. In 

 an ordinary way, however, I have repeatedly 

 observed that tree-builders remain brooding closer 

 than those in crags, possibly because they fancy 

 that the surrounding timber affords them some 

 sort of extra protection or sequestration, and ^oft- 

 times r.iay these be approached to within the 

 easiest of gun-shots. On the other hand, the crag- 

 breeder, particularly if intruded upon from the 

 valley, very often quits her charge the moment an 

 intruder has started to climb, sometimes, indeed, 

 that instant in which he is visible far down dale, or 

 as soon as the non-sitting bird sets up a mew of 

 defiance and fear. 



The average Buzzard is a noisy bird at the 



