KITE. COMMON BUZZARD. 27 



back to be rather common in Norfolk/' being used in 

 the days of hawking as a prey to the nobler falcons, 

 and Messrs. Brodrick and Salvin (Falconry in the British 

 Isles,) speak of Thetford warren as a favourite locality 

 for " Kite hawking/' which was pursued by the Earl of 

 Orford and Colonel Thornton in 1773, and by Mr. 

 Colquhoun, of Wretham, about 1775. Probably the 

 last specimen obtained in this county was a female, 

 trapped at Croxton, near Thetford, in November, 1852. 

 The sternum of this bird is in the collection of Mr. Alfred 

 Newton, of Magdalene College, Cambridge, although 

 I have been unable satisfactorily to trace the skin; 

 but either this or one killed on the Suffolk side of 

 Thetford warren in 1857 is, I believe, (unticketed,) in the 

 Dennis collection, which was recently purchased for 

 the Bury museum. A splendid old male in Mr. T. M. 

 Spalding's* collection at Westleton, was shot at Caistor, 

 near Yarmouth, about five and twenty years back, but 

 this species is described by the Messrs. Paget, in 1834, 

 as "very rare" in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth; 

 indeed it appears to have] been always more plentiful 

 on the other side of the county. Sir Thomas Browne 

 accounts for their being scarce in the neighbourhood of 

 Norwich in his time " because of the plenty of Ravens." 



BUTEO VULGARIS, Bechstein. 

 COMMON BUZZARD. 



The Common Buzzard visits us annually in small num- 

 bers both in spring and autumn, but rarely in mature 

 plumage. It has probably ceased for some years to breed 



* Mr. Spalding informs me that the Kev. J. Fair, of Gilling- 

 ham, Norfolk, has two Kites killed at Benacre, in the adjoining 

 county, one of them within the last ten years. This bird was 

 trapped by one claw, and the readiness with which they are attracted 

 by any bait is probably the chief cause of their extermination. 

 E 2 



