48 BIRDS' NESTS 



naturalist rarely meets with this Falcon nowadays, and 

 the time may come when it will cease to breed within 

 our limits at all. The old nest of a Crow, a Magpie 

 or a Ring Dove appears to be the favourite selection, 

 and here without alteration of any kind the eggs are 

 incubated. Another British species (although we 

 regret that it will soon no longer be one, if indeed it 

 has not already disappeared) is the Honey Buzzard. 

 This handsome bird selects the deserted home of a 

 Crow, Magpie, Buzzard, or Kite ; but in this case the 

 old abode is furbished up a little by the addition of a 

 lining of green leaves, which is renewed from time 

 to time as incubation progresses. The Orange-legged 

 Hobby, perhaps equally well known as the Red-legged 

 Falcon, is yet another annexer, bringing up its young 

 in the old nest of a Crow, a Magpie, or a Rook, when 

 in the latter numbers of pairs sometimes breeding in 

 company. The Iceland Jer Falcon is also said never 

 to make a nest, but sometimes to select a disused 

 Raven's abode for its purpose ; more frequently 

 perhaps depositing its eggs on the bare ground on a 

 ledge of the cliffs. Incidentally I may state that the 

 habit of annexing is not universal in some species. 

 The Egyptian Vulture, for instance, sometimes 

 builds a nest for itself, and sometimes selects 

 the deserted home of a Short-toed Eagle, a 

 Bearded Vulture, or a Raven — a fact which 

 seems to suggest that the habit of annex- 

 ing is gradually being acquired. Similarly the 



