FALCONID,E. 25 



that in confinement it will, when satisfied, hide the 

 rest of its food. He also notices another very extra- 

 ordinary peculiarity of the female Common Buzzard 

 in confinement, namely, that she has heen known to 

 sit on hen's eggs and bring up a good brood of 

 chickens,* but that upon one occasion, when given 

 the young chickens ready hatched to bring up, in- 

 stead of the eggs to sit upon first, she ate them all. 



The nest is either placed on some ledge of a steep 

 cliff or rock, when it is made of twigs, heath, wool, 

 and some other substances ; or in the forked branches 

 of some large tree, in which case the bird is apt to 

 choose the forsaken nest of some other bird, which 

 it repairs with the same materials as those already 

 mentioned.! 



The Buzzard varies much in plumage; I shall, 

 however, describe that which appears to me the most 

 usual : Bill bluish horn ; cere yellow ; irides gene- 

 rally yellow ; general colouring of the head and all 

 the upper parts dark dull brown, most of the feathers 

 bordered with yellowish white ; throat, centre of each 

 feather brown, more or less edged with white ; breast 

 brown ; belly white, barred with brown ; under tail- 

 coverts white, with a few brown spots ; primary quills 

 dusky above ; on the under parts the tips and outer 



* For another well-authenticated instance of this, see 

 the ' Zoologist' for 1865, p. 9686. 

 | Yarrell, vol. i., p. 90. 



