COMMON BUZZARD. 117 



BUTEO VULGARIS. 

 COMMON BUZZARD. 



(PLATE 5.) 



Accipiter buteo, JSriss. Orn. i. p. 406 (1760). 



Falco buteo, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 127 (1766). 



Aquila glaucopis, Merrem, Ao. Ear. p. 22, pi. vii. (1786). 



Falco albus, Daud. Traite, ii. p. 155 (1800). 



Buteo vulgaris, Leach, Syst. Cat. M. $ Birds Brit. Mus. p. 10 (1816) ; et auctorum 

 plurimorum Gray, Eaup, Schlegel, Stinckland, Jerdon, Gould, Sundevatt, New- 

 ton, Sharpe, Dresser, &c. 



Buteo mutans, Vieill N. Diet. cTHist. Nat. iv. p. 469 (1816). 



Buteo fasciatus, Vieill. Noitv. Diet. iv. p. 474 (1816). 



Buteo spiralis, Forst. Syn. Cat. Br. B. p. 44 (1817). 



Falco pojana, Savi, Nuov. Giorn. Pisa, xxii. p. 68 (1822). 



Buteo communis, Less. Traite, p. 78 (1831). 



Buteo fuscus, Macyill. Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 183 (1840). 



Buteo cinereus, Bp. Consp. i. p. 18 (1850). 



Buteo variabilis, Bailly, Orn. Sav. i. p. 127 (1853). 



The Common Buzzard was formerly pretty generally distributed through- 

 out Great Britain and Ireland, probably with the exception of the Outer 

 Hebrides, the Orkneys, and Shetlands ; but it is now confined to a few of 

 the larger forests, principally of Scotland and Wales, and the sea-coasts 

 where the rocks are lofty and precipitous. 



The Buzzard varies so much in the colour of its plumage, and frequently 

 approaches so closely to its nearest allies, that it is very difficult to define 

 its exact range. It is impossible to draw a hard and fast line between B. 

 vulgaris, B. ferox, B. desertorum, B. japonicus, and B. plumipes. Many 

 ornithologists have attempted to do so ; but no one has been able to dis- 

 cover a diagnosis which harmonizes with geographical distribution. The 

 Buzzard is by no means an Arctic bird, and rarely, if ever, strays within 

 the Arctic circle, only approaching it in the western limit of its range. 

 In Scandinavia it is said to breed up to lat. 66, at Archangel to 65, 

 and on the Urals to 59 ; consequently there is no Arctic form of this 

 bird. The southern limit of the breeding-range of the typical form of the 

 Buzzard is the Mediterranean, the valley of the Danube, the northern shore 

 of the Black Sea, and the lower valley of the Volga, not reaching so far 

 south as the Caspian, but extending eastward to the Urals. In the northern 

 portion of its rauge it is only a summer visitor ; in the central portion a few 

 remain duriflg the winter ; and in the southern portion of its range it is a 

 resident, its numbers being increased in winter by migrants from the north. 

 The Ural birds appear to winter in Turkestan. Its occurrence in Africa in 



