120 BRITISH BIRDS. 



relieves the female at her duties. He tells me that, besides small mammals, 

 the Buzzard will eat grasshoppers and other insects, reptiles, and occasion- 

 ally small birds, if it gets a chance of catching them sitting. The spines 

 of the hedgehog have been found in the stomach of the Buzzard ; and Dr. 

 Holland also mentioned an instance of a female bird having been found 

 dead on the nest with a live viper under her. 



The Buzzard returns year after year to the same nest, but is said not to 

 breed a second time the same year if the eggs are taken. When the 

 eggs are much incubated she sits very close. Sometimes we could see the 

 tail projecting beyond the edge of the nest, but were unable to drive the 

 bird from her place by shouting, sometimes not even by hitting the trunk 

 of the tree. Once or twice the sitting bird did not fly off until the climber 

 was halfway up the tree. When she does take wing, she flies straight off 

 and clears herself from the tops of the surrounding trees as soon as pos- 

 sible. She sits on the nest head to wind, and flies off also head to wind, 

 but, when she has a clear course, generally soon wheels round, and keeps 

 up at intervals a melancholy cry like pe-e-i-o-oo. The Buzzard is said to 

 breed in its first spring, in immature plumage. As soon as the duty of 

 feeding the young is nearly come to an end, which is late in May or early 

 in June, the moulting-season comes on. First the wing- and tail-feathers 

 are renewed, but slowly, only one or two at each side at a time, so as not 

 to interfere much with its power of flight. During August and September 

 the body-feathers are moulted. 



Dixon met with this bird in the north of Scotland, and made the follow- 

 ing note respecting its nesting-habits there : " Far in the deepest soli- 

 tudes of the deer-forests the Buzzard ofttimes builds its nest. Its cradle 

 is usually placed in some dense hoary pine tree, the patriarch of the forest, 

 and the one most difficult of access tqo. It is here, but sometimes also 

 just on the borderland of the forests, that the Buzzard finds the solitude 

 of his choice, the seclusion which he loves. Nothing breaks the silence 

 here save the occasional cry of a Blackcock or the light tread of the moun- 

 tain-hare as it hurries off at your approach. The scenery around is grand, 

 befitting surroundings to such an abode. The distant mountains come out 

 in bold outline against the clear morning sky ; and the sunlight glistens 

 brightly on the red bark of the pines around you. The nest is situated on 

 a flat branch, some sixty feet from the ground. It is a large bulky struc- 

 ture, indeed almost flat, and made of sticks. In the cavity Avhich contains 

 the eggs are a few bits of wool and down, similar to what are often found 

 in the Sparrow-Hawk's nest. Indeed the whole structure bears a very 

 close resemblance to the nest of that bird ; only it is situated further from 

 the trunk of the tree, like the nest of the Heron. Since this nest was 

 robbed, the pair of birds have commenced building another, choosing for 

 their situation this time the face of an old ivy- covered cliff." 



