Nesting of the Jackal Buzzard. 57


BREEDING OF THE JACKAL BUZZARD.


By J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S.


My pair of Jackal Buzzards Buleo jackal (Daud.) arrived

from the Zoological Gardens in the autumn of 1904 and stood

their first winter in Norfolk in an out-of-doors cage well. Being

supplied with nesting materials early in the following spring, they

in June built themselves a nest but laid no eggs. However in the

spring of 1906 materials being again supplied early and in greater

variety than before, building commenced at the end of February,

and in about a fortnight the nest, which was chiefly composed

of small sticks, was finished, and the Buzzard was sitting on it.


On March 16th the absence of the female for a short time

enabled my man to see that there were two eggs in the nest, one

of which was chipped on April 18th and this had hatched out by

the morning of the 19th. The other egg unfortunately proved

to be rotten. As the eggs are believed to have been laid suc-

cessively on March 14th and 15th, this would give 39 days as the

period of incubation of this Buzzard.


At the age of five days the nestling was covered with

palest grey down, but on the throat, chin, and face the down was

white. On the 16th of May the first feathers were just visible,

on the 19th it was a month old and could stand, and by the 28th

it was two thirds the size of its parents and growing rapidly, red

feathers coming over most of its breast.


By June 5th I think it might have been called full grown,

the upper part of its breast being by that time very dark and the

sides streaked, the eye much greyer than the eyes of its parents

and its legs a paler yellow. On July 4th the eye was assuming a

yellow tint, the bird being in excellent health but still showing

two or three flecks of down which were not yet shed.


At the age of six months (October 24th) all the tinder-

parts were a fairly bright rufous, without any indication of dark

flanks or belly, nor had any of the under feathering those broad

white margins which add so much to the beauty of an adult.

Head and tipper parts brown, tail brown, underside of spread

wing partly white, eyes pale yellow. I have been thus particular

in the description, because the early stages iu the life of this

species do not seem to have been described in detail before.



