452 



Hebrides, where it breeds, I have not been able to trace it to the outer islands. On the whole 

 of the western mainland, however, it is met with sparingly, and appears in some of the lower 

 districts more numerously in autumn than at other seasons, being in this respect something like 

 the next species. It is frequently trapped in the district of Campsie, where limited numbers 

 seem to linger a week or two during their autumnal wanderings." 



According to Thompson (B. of Ireland, i. p. 73) it was to be found generally in suitable 

 localities throughout Ireland, about twenty-five or thirty years ago ; but since then it has doubt- 

 less decreased greatly in numbers, though it may possibly still breed in some of the densely 

 wooded localities. I have, however, no recent data respecting its occurrence in that country, 

 and can merely repeat what Professor Newton says — viz. that, in Mr. Watter's opinion, it was 

 chiefly confined to the northern counties of Ireland, where it bred along the basaltic precipices 

 of the coast ; " but," Professor Newton adds, " it is doubtful whether such is now the case." It 

 does not appear to have been met with in Iceland ; but in Scandinavia it is a common species, 

 perhaps one of the most numerous of the Eaptores, and breeds throughout the country, except in 

 the extreme north. According to Mr. Collett it breeds commonly in the south-eastern lowlands 

 of Norway, especially near Christiania, is common in Land and Valders, and is found in the 

 Gudbrandsdale, as high as the fell-ridges. It is, he adds, scarcely possible to define the northern 

 limit of its range with any degree of certainty. Professor Esmark believes that he observed it 

 in East Finmark in the summer of 1866. It is met with not unfrequently on the west coast, as, 

 for instance, at Stavanger, in Hardanger, and on the Sondfjord. On the fell-sides it does not 

 range as high as the subalpine region. It arrives in Sweden in March or April, and is, during 

 the summer, one of the commonest birds of prey in the southern and central portions of the 

 country, ranging occasionally as far north as Lapland ; and the late Professor Sundevall states 

 (Sv. Fogl. p. 226) that he has seen it in the flat country below Muonioniska, in 68° N. lat. 

 From Skane to Norrland it is, he adds, the most numerous of the birds of prey, and is very 

 generally distributed throughout the country. In Finland it is common in the southern and 

 central portions of the country, but becomes rarer in the north. It is stated to be tolerably 

 common in the Archangel Government, in Northern Eussia; and Mr. L. Sabanaeff says that it 

 is common enough in the neighbourhood of Moscow and in the Vologda Government. It 

 occurs in the Voronege Government during passage, and breeds numerously in the country 

 through which the Volga flows, and is, according to Eversmann, not uncommon in the wooded 

 portions of the southern steppes. In the western Ural it is common, and occurs as far north as 

 about 59° N. lat. In the birch-woods on the eastern slope of the Ural, in the Ekaterinburg 

 district, it becomes much rarer, and is, he (Sabanaeff) states, not found at all in the Schadrinsk 

 district. There is, I may add, some doubt as to whether all the information respecting its 

 occurrence in Eussia refers to the present species or B. desertorum; for I have received this 

 latter from Archangel, and Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown remark that many of the Buzzards 

 obtained near Archangel were very rufous, which makes it probable that at least some of those 

 they refer to were B. desertorum and not B. vulgaris. 



Throughout the Baltic Provinces, Poland, and North Germany the common Buzzard breeds 

 numerously in suitable localities, and is one of the best-known of the Eaptores ; and in Denmark, 

 Mr. A. Benzon informs me, " it is numerous throughout the country, and breeds both in the 



