202 



THE COMMON BUZZARD. 



Buteo vulgaris BEGHSTEIN. 



PLATE XVIII. 



Falco buteo, Linn. Buteo vulgaris, Btchstem. Fleming. 

 Common Buzzard of Brit. Ornithologists. 



THE Common Buzzard is not an uncommon 

 species in Britain, frequenting the more cultivated 

 plains and woodlands of England, as well as the 

 very wildest parts of Scotland. In the former, it 

 is a bird of decidedly sylvan habits, delighting in 

 the more extensive chases and parks where there is 

 Abundance of aged timber, or in the tracts which 

 still bear the name of forests ; in the latter fre- 

 quenting the Alpine districts, and breeding on the 

 edges of the ravines with which they are so abun- 

 dantly intersected. In either case, the nest is 

 built of large sticks, with a scanty lining of wool 

 fT hair ; the site, an aged tree or some ledge of 

 rock; the eggs, three or four in number, of a 

 rounded form, bluish or greenish white, with 

 pale brown blotches and spots or streaks most 

 crowded at the thicker end. (See Plate XVI 

 fig. 1.) In its habits it is sluggish and inac- 



