Common Buzzard. 85 



builds, look to lesser linen ' [' Winter's Tale,' Act iv., Scene 2]. I 

 have the excellent authority of Professor Skeat that ' kite ' signi- 

 fies ' the shooter,' from the Teutonic root skut, ' to shoot/ or ' go 

 quickly.' 



12. COMMON BUZZARD (Buteo vulgaris). 



Known in Sweden as Orm Vrdk, or l Snake Vrak,' I presume from 

 its partiality for reptiles; not uncommon in the wooded districts of 

 Germany, where I have seen it more than once, perched on the 

 lower branch of a tree, this large handsome species, like that last 

 described, is not now the common bird it once was, and which its 

 specific name implies. At one time it abounded in our woodland 

 districts, but now it is rarely to be met with. The Rev. G. Marsh 

 told of one which was brought to him from Dray cot Park, in 1840. 

 Mr. Stratton has occasionally seen the bird as it passed over or 

 rested in his locality, but states that it does not remain there. 

 Mr. Hayward had often observed it on Fiddington Common some 

 years since, but of late years seldom saw it. More recently I have 

 notices of its occurrence in this county from Rev. A. P. Morres, who 

 possesses one killed at Pomeroy, near Bradford, in 1865 ; another 

 from Mr. Rawlence, killed on the property of Lord Bath in Wilt- 

 shire ; another from Mr. Ernest Baker, of Mere, of an immature 

 specimen, supposed by him to be a bird of the year, shot at 

 Maiden Bradley, October 14th, 1876, by one of the Duke of 

 Somerset's keepers, who saw it kill a leveret, and set a trap and 

 caught it almost immediately. The Marlborough College Reports 

 speak of several specimens observed in 1865 of one shot at 

 Overton Dell by Mr. Price's keeper, October 22, 1875, and of 

 another seen at Everley in 1878. Lord Arundell informs me 

 that one was shot at Wardour when the tenants were out pigeon- 

 shooting some time since. Lord Nelson reports that he has a 

 specimen which was killed at Trafalgar. Major Heneage has 

 one shot at Compton Bassett in 1844; Mr. G. Watson Taylor 

 tells me that it visits Erlestoke ; Mr. W. Stancomb, jun., that 

 it is seen on the downs above Baynton ; and finally, Mr. Grant 

 reports specimens which have come to him from Roundway 



