32 OUR RARER BIRDS 



Its principal food is small birds, though it will attack and 

 capture Pigeons, and like all the smaller Hawks it catches 

 insects. It breeds on the ground, returning to the same 

 spot every season, making its scanty nest among the heather 

 and the bilberry wires, and laying five eggs, which, with the 

 exception of being a trifle browner, closely resemble those of 

 the Kestrel. The Merlin is about the size of the Kestrel, but 

 is readily distinguished by its slate-blue upper parts and 

 rufous nape. 



Another bird that breeds sparingly in our largest forests 

 and highest ocean cliffs is the Common Buzzard (Buteo 

 vulgaris). Its large size, brown plumage, barred tail, and 

 short bare tarsi, distinguish it from the other British species. 

 In our islands it is a resident, but shifts its ground con- 

 siderably according to season, wandering far from its usual 

 haunts as soon as the young are safely reared. I have often 

 met with this handsome bird in the pine woods of the north, 

 and taken its nest in them. It is a flat, bulky structure 

 made of sticks, and the shallow cavity containing the eggs is 

 often strewed with a flake or two of down. It also nests on 

 cliffs both inland and on the coast. It is an early breeder, 

 its eggs being laid towards the end of April. They are 

 white in ground colour, spotted and blotched with reddish- 

 brown. The Common Buzzard is a very sluggish bird, 

 beating slowly along the hillsides and over the open ground 

 in quest of mice and frogs ; and it will not refuse to make a 

 meal on carrion. I do not think it ever molests birds, and 

 is comparatively harmless in the game coverts. 



The Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus), distinguished from 

 all other birds of prey by its feathered lores (the space 

 between the eye and the base of the bill), is a summer visitor 

 still to the New Forest, where its eggs are obtained almost 

 every season. It is a fitting ornament to this delightful 

 wooded scenery, and never fails to win our admiration as it 



