116 ACCIPITRES. 



earth from the sun, are the best times for observing the 

 habits of the marsh harriers. They are provincially known 

 by many names, such as duck-hawks, moor-buzzards, harpies, 

 and others. They seldom beat over dry places, and are 

 never found at very great elevations. 



BUZZARDS. 



The buzzards have some resemblance to the harriers, but 

 they are easily distinguished, both by their appearance and 

 their habits. They want the concha of feathers round the 

 eyes ; they have no tooth in the upper mandible ; their claws 

 are short, and less hooked than those of any of the other 

 sections ; they have the feathers on the legs very long, and 

 the tarsi much shorter than the harriers ; and their whole 

 frame seems loose and feeble; though t ne y ar ^ bold and 

 powerful birds. There are three buzzards mentioned as 

 British birds ; the common buzzard, which is abundant in 

 wooded districts ; the rough-legged buzzard, which is a native 

 of colder climates, and comes rarely to Britain as a straggler 

 in the winter j and the honey-buzzard, which also is by no 

 means common ; and though it breeds in some places, is, in 

 all probability, only a summer visitant j indeed, as it seems 

 to feed much, if not exclusively, upon winged insects, provi- 

 sions for it in the winter are but scarce. 



THE COMMON BUZZARD (FalcO 



The common buzzard is a large bird, more than twenty 

 inches in length, and four feet in the stretch of the wings ; 

 but the wings are neither so well formed nor so fit for rapid 

 flight as those of the marsh harrier. The bird weighs about 

 two pounds ; but it looks clumsy. 



It builds in trees, the eggs being large, and seldom if ever 

 exceeding four in number. As the places that it frequents 

 abound in game, the buzzard finds its food with less labour 

 than any other of the diurnal birds of prey. It continues 



