COMMON BUZZARD. , S ;j 



THE BUZZARD is one of the most common of the larger 

 kind of Hawks which inhabit the wooded districts of thin 

 country, preying upon small quadrupeds, birds, and even 

 reptiles. Bulky in appearance and rather slow in flight, 

 it remains for hours watching from the same tree, appear- 

 ing to prefer the accidental approach of an animal that 

 may serve for a meal rather than find it by a laborious 

 search, and is seldom observed to remain long together upon 

 the wing. Its courage too, as compared with others of the 

 Falconida, has been questioned ; since it is known to attack 

 such animals as are either young or defenceless, which 

 it does not pursue and capture by its powers of flight, 

 but pounces at upon the ground. Though occasionally 

 seen soaring in the air in circles, it is much more frequently 

 stationed on a tree, from which if approached it bustles out, 

 as observed by the author of the Journal of a Naturalist, 

 with a confused and hurried flight, indicative of fear. 



Mr. Macgillivray, in his descriptions of the Rapacious 

 Birds of Great Britain, gives the Buzzard a character for 

 greater activity in Scotland, as observed by himself; but 

 the nature of the country may be the cause of this differ- 

 ence in habit, and much greater exertion is perhaps 

 absolutely necessary to ensure a sufficient supply of food. 

 In Scotland the Buzzard " forms its nest on rocks, or on 

 the edges of steep scars or beds of torrents : " one nest 

 described by the writer last named " was placed on the top 

 of a steep bank or nit of a stream, and was composed of 

 twigs, heath, wool, and some other substances." In Eng- 

 land the Buzzard usually builds, or takes to, a nest in the 

 forked branches of a tree in a large wood : the materials 

 with which the nest is made, or repaired, are similar to 

 those that have been already named. 



The female lays two or three, and sometimes four eggs, 



