THE BUZZARDS 



[ORDER : Accipitres. SUBORDER : Falcones. FAMILY : Buteonidca. 



SUBFAMILY: Suteonince] 



PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



[F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON] 



BUZZARD [Buteo buteo (Linnaeus); Buteo vulgaris, Leach. Kit or kite 

 (Devon), puttock (Essex). French, buse commune ; German, Mdusebussard ; 

 Italian, pojana]. 



1. Description. The buzzard may be distinguished by its brown 

 coloration, and the fact that the tarso-metatarsus, which is relatively short, is 

 scaled and not reticulated. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change 

 of plumage. In coloration the buzzard is very variable, but the upper parts are 

 dark brown, as also are the fore-neck and breast. Often, however, the mid-breast 

 is white, more or less completely barred with dark brown. The tail is always barred 

 with dark brown, but the number of the bars is variable. More commonly the 

 breast is more or less distinctly marked with broad longitudinal striation on a 

 white ground. Cere, eyelid, legs chrome-yellow, iris dark brown. (PL 147.) 

 Length, male 21 in. [533*0 mm.], female 23 in. [584*0 mm.]. Immature birds 

 are paler than the adults ; the throat brown, streaked with white, the breast 

 blotched with brown on a white ground. Young in down white. 



Very handsome, cream-coloured birds, mottled with brown, are occasionally 

 met with, and melanic specimens are not uncommon, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles the buzzard is now confined to the 

 Devonian Peninsula, Wales (where from sixty to a hundred pairs nest), the Lake 

 district, and a few scattered sites on the spurs of the Pennine range ; while in 

 Scotland it is more generally distributed, but is chiefly confined to the mountainous 

 districts and the west coasts, though a few pairs also nest on the cliffs of the Inner 



VOL. IV. P 



