THE COMMON AND ROUGHLEGGED-BUZZARDS 117 



THE COMMON AND ROUGHLEGGED-BUZZARDS 



[W. P. PYCRAFT] 



From their general appearance, flight, and habits the Buzzards 

 are generally regarded as near allies of the Eagles. They have indeed 

 much in common, but anatomically they prove to be less nearly 

 related thereto than appearances lead us to suppose. 



Two species of Buzzard, representing as many genera, are 

 included in the lists of British Birds. One of these has at no time 

 bred with us, in spite of statements to the contrary ; the other, 

 happily, still annually rears its young in the wilder solitudes of these 

 islands, though how much longer this will continue to be the case it 

 would be dangerous to prophesy, for their numbers have been 

 reduced to a most lamentable degree. Since Montagu referred to 

 the buzzard as " one of the most common species of falcon we have," 

 a deplorable change has taken place. Slow, and phlegmatic in habit, 

 it was always a bird easy of approach, so that when what the late 

 Howard Saunders described as " the increase of Pheasant-worship," 

 and E. T. Booth as " the rage of Game-preserving," set in, the doom 

 of the buzzard was sealed. To those who have an inherent love of 

 wild things and wild places, the spoliation of the country to satisfy 

 the thoughtless indifference of the " sportsman " affords a cause for 

 righteous indignation, which is increased by the consciousness of the 

 " unsportsman-like " method of accomplishing this work of destruc- 

 tion. Poison and the pole-trap are the weapons of assassins, yet they 

 have been the mainstay of the game-preserver, and these facts are 

 hard to reconcile with the pretensions to fair-play which one is wont 

 to associate with the word the "sportsman." Not even when the 

 victims of their displeasure are branded as " vermin " is the vengeance 

 meted out mitigated. 



It is now more than seventy years since the buzzard bred in 

 Norfolk and other eastern counties. Partridges and ground-game 



