116 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus BUTEO. 



The genus Buteo was established by Cuvier in 1800, in his ' 

 (T Anatomic comparee/ i. tab. 2. Previous to that date the Buzzards were 

 included in the genus Falco of Linnaeus. Cuvier did not designate any 

 type ; nor has any later writer in any subsequent subdivision of the genus 

 done so. It is impossible to say what species was considered typical by 

 Cuvier ; but it is perfectly obvious that the Common Buzzard (the F. buteo 

 of LinnEeus) ought to have been so considered, and we cannot do wrong in 

 so accepting it. 



The Buzzards are very nearly allied to the Eagles, forming a connecting 

 link between them and the Harriers and the Hawks. From the Eagles 

 they may be distinguished by having no feathers on the lower half of the 

 tarsus, which is scaled before and behind, a character they have in common 

 with the Harriers and the Hawks. From the former they are distinguished 

 by their thick tarsus (circumference about one third of length), and from 

 the latter by their long wings and short tarsus (less than a fourth the 

 length of the wing, and less than half the length of the first primary). 

 In their habits the Buzzards very closely resemble the Eagles, being, as a 

 rule, somewhat heavy in flight, rarely catching their food upon the wing. 

 They feed upon reptiles, mice, and other small mammals, insects, and 

 occasionally birds, which they catch when sitting. They build a mode- 

 rate-sized nest of sticks &c., which is sometimes placed on trees, and 

 sometimes on rocks. They lay from two to four eggs, greenish white or 

 pure white in ground-colour, marked sparingly with reddish-brown and 

 violet shell-markings. When held up to the light the shells of Buzzards' 

 eggs look green. The Buzzards, of which there are twenty or more species, 

 are almost cosmopolitan in their range, but are seldom found north of 

 the Arctic circle. But one species is found in the British Islands. 



