114 THE BUZZARDS 



Hebrides. In Ireland it is extinct as a breeding species, though it still occurs on 

 migration. Formerly it was much more widely distributed, and was not un- 

 common in the wooded districts of England, breeding in Hants as recently as 1896. 

 On the Continent it ranges north to lat. 66 in Sweden, and is found south to the 

 Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, but in the Atlantic Isles, Sardinia and 

 Corsica, the greater part of European Russia, and from the west shores of the 

 Black Sea to Greece, it is replaced by other local races, and this is also the case 

 in Western Asia. In the British Isles the buzzard is a sedentary species, but 

 birds from the high north move southward in the winter. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident in parts of Great Britain (cf. preceding paragraph), 

 and occurring as an irregular cold-weather visitor over the rest of the country. 

 It is irregularly recorded on both passages on the east coast of England and from 

 the south almost annually in autumn (cf. Nelson, B. of YorJcs., 1907, p. 325 ; and 

 Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 269). To Ireland it is now only a casual visitor 

 from October to spring, and very rarely recorded in the extreme west (cf. Ussher 

 and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 123). There seems to be no definite evidence 

 of much intermigration with the Continent. A gregarious migrant ; on Heligoland, 

 where it occurs in every month of the year except June and July, it is commonly 

 seen in groups of three or four, these numbers being at times increased " almost 

 up to hundreds " (cf. Gatke, Vogelwarte Helgoland, Eng. trans., 1895, p. 183). 

 [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. At the present time most of our British buzzards 

 nest on cliffs and rocks, but some still nest in trees, and formerly there is no doubt 

 that tree-nesting birds were in a great majority. The inaccessible nature of their 

 haunts has given the cliff-breeding birds a better chance of surviving. The nests 

 are often exceedingly bulky, composed of sticks of varying sizes, heather, etc., lined 

 with grasses and fresh green sprays of foliage from some species of tree, spruce, 

 pine, ivy, etc., which are neatly arranged round the eggs, and renewed from time 

 to time. (PI. LXIH.) The eggs are generally two or three in number, more rarely 

 four, 1 while very old birds will sometimes incubate a single egg only. They are 

 laid at intervals of about two days, and in colour they range from bluish white 

 without any markings whatever to white marked with rusty stains or spots and 

 blotches of varied depths, varying from red-brown to deep sepia, almost black. 

 Violet underlying shell-markings are also frequently present. Average size of 

 100 eggs measured by Rey, 2-15 x 1-72 in. [54-8 x 43*9 mm.]. Both sexes share in 



1 One or two clutches of five eggs are on record. 



