410 



FAMILY FALCONIDJE ; BUZZARDS. 



373. If the Hawks may be regarded as an inferior kind of 



Falcon, the Buzzards may 

 be considered as having 

 the same relation to the 

 Eagles. Their bodies are 

 robust, their wings ample 

 and rounded, and their 

 tarsi more or less feather- 

 ed, often to the toes; 

 but they are much inferior 

 in the strength of the bill 

 and talons ; though the 

 former, as in the Falcons, 

 is curved from its base. 

 Their flight is easy and 

 undulating ; they have 

 neither the soar and 

 swoop of the Falcons, the 

 no. 214,-coMMox BUZZARD. arrow - like dash of the 



Hawks, nor the circling sweep of the Kites ; but they sail easily 

 and rapidly along, and hunt in quest of moles, rats, mice, young 

 rabbits, reptiles, and insects. The Common Buzzard (Fig. 214) 

 is an inhabitant of all the wooded countries of Europe, and of the 

 adjacent parts of Asia ; and it is also found in the fur countries 

 of North America. It is a Bird of considerable strength and 

 size ; but of no great courage. It usually looks out for its victims 

 from the branch of a tree, on which it perches ; and when it per- 

 ceives its prey, it takes wing, gliding rapidly and silently on its 

 victim. It usually builds its nest in a tall tree, selecting the 

 most retired part of the wood; and it defends its young with 

 great resolution. So strong is this parental feeling in the Buz- 

 zard, that females have been known in captivity to hatch and 

 rear the young of other birds. One kept at an inn at Uxbridge 

 hatched a brood of chickens for several years, and always per- 

 formed the duties of a foster-mother with great assiduity, although 

 she seemed much astonished at the preference which the chicks 

 exhibited for corn over the morsels of meat which she offered 



