MOUNTAIN BIRDS 239 



seventeen buzzards have been taken by the shepherds 

 upon one allotment in the manner indicated above. 

 On a cloudless summer day it is beautiful to see 

 these birds circling high in the air until they become 

 as specks against the blue. Sometimes half a dozen 

 birds may be seen indulging at the same time in these 

 gyrations, which have evidently no other object than 

 pleasure. Although naturalists have described the 

 buzzard as building in trees, this is not always the 

 case, as in every instance that has come under my 

 personal notice the nests have been built among the 

 rocks and crags. They are composed of sticks, 

 twigs of heather and bents, and are lined with wool. 

 The eggs, however, are as variable as the plumage 

 of the birds themselves, which is saying much. 

 Cream-coloured specimens are not at all uncommon, 

 these being for the most part birds of the year. At 

 the farmhouses of the dalesmen and yeomen, lying 

 contiguous to the mountains, one of the orthodox 

 ornaments is a case of " stuffed " birds. In these 

 the common buzzard is generally the most con- 

 spicuous, and in examining the cases referred to I 

 have discovered four rough-legged buzzards. The 

 common buzzard is an early breeder, and not un- 

 frequently two broods are produced in a season. 

 An authentic anecdote anent this species may be 

 worth recording. William Pearson, a friend of 

 Wordsworth, was a close observer of the birds of 



