THE COMMON BUZZARD. 117 



perched on some hollow tree, and waits till the prey comes 

 within its reach, and then it leaps down to secure and dis- 

 patch it. It is, in fact, the only diurnal rapacious bird that 

 preys in the thick of the forests and on the ground in these j 

 and though when we compare it with those hawks which 

 drive through the air or beat the bushes or the waste, it 

 seems an indolent creature, yet vigilance is its habit, and the 

 only one that is well adapted to the places which it frequents. 

 To beat a forest of tall trees by flying over it, would answer 

 very little purpose, and to beat through the branches would 

 be impossible for a day bird that depended on the light of 

 the sun. The habit of the buzzard, therefore, though differ- 

 ent from that of any of the other diurnal birds of prey, is 

 just as finely adapted to the places which it frequents as that 

 of any of the others ; and the peregrine for all its speed, and 

 the harrier for all its diligence, would find but a small supply 

 in those places where the buzzard fares abundantly. The 

 prey which it takes, too, is so situated that man could not 

 easily take it ; and therefore there would be a blank in 

 nature, a want of something to preserve the balance between 

 animals and their food, if the woodland were despoiled of its 

 buzzards. But when the wood is cut down, and the animals 

 over which the buzzard is set as a sort of regulator are dis- 

 persed or betake themselves to open localities, they meet with 

 new regulators, and the buzzard disappears. 



Buzzards vary a good deal in colour, but the prevailing 

 tints are : rich brown edged with yellowish brown on the 

 upper part, white on the throat, and yellowish white on the 

 belly, the former marked with streaks, and the latter with 

 arrow-point spots of brown, the quills and tail feathers barred 

 with blackish brown. 



Besides the general rest and quiet of the buzzard, there is 

 another circumstance recorded of it, which points out the 

 general effect that plenty of food acquirable without much 



