THE COMMON BUZZARD 171 



down momentarily into the trees above me, to 

 examine the to him strange object, while on 

 several occasions a male has accompanied me for 

 miles, though keeping at a respectful distance, 

 leaving his sitting hen far behind. This almost 

 looks as if he were endeavouring to draw one away 

 from the sacred precincts. 



As has been shown, the non-incubating bird 

 is usually close to the eyrie, either on some con- 

 tiguous tree or ledge, or at any rate within easy 

 hail of it ; or wheeling slow and stately far above 

 the site ; and were it not for its often quite sense- 

 less habit of advertising the place by flapping down 

 the valley or over the wood to meet and challenge 

 an intruder by squealing piteously and persistently, 

 many a nest would escape the indiscriminate 

 looter. 



The earliest ' ' set " of eggs I have ever seen was 

 completed by April 7th, but normally even the 

 most sheltered eyries in the lowland woods seldom 

 contain eggs prior to between April 18th and 

 25th, while hill-birds usually delay their laying 

 until between the end of that period and early 

 May, though some few pairs are a little later. Yet 

 sometimes mountain-eyries hold eggs by April 

 20th, and, curious to relate, the early record first 

 referred to hailed from a gorge buried in the 

 mountains. Individual hens commence laying 

 almost to a day annually. Where the bird is truly 

 plentiful there may exist two tenanted eyries within 



