FALCONID., 321 
THE COMMON BUZZARD. 
BUTEO vuLGARIS, Leach. 
As regards the British Islands, the epithet ‘common’ is annually 
becoming less and less applicable to this species; but there are 
districts in England—especially in the west—as well as Wales, where 
the bird may still be seen circling high in the air, and be heard 
uttering its plaintive mewing cry. Sixty years ago it used to breed 
in Norfolk and other eastern counties abounding with Partridges and 
ground-game, without being considered incompatible with their 
existence ; but with the increase of Pheasant-worship the doom of 
the Buzzard was sealed. In Scotland it is chiefly found in the 
centre and west of the mainland, and a few pairs breed in the Inner 
Hebrides, but the bird is very rare in the Orkneys and of doubtful 
occurrence in the Shetlands. In Ireland it is almost extirpated as a 
nesting-species, but is an occasional visitor from autumn to spring. 
The Common Buzzard appears to reach its northern breeding-limit 
at about lat. 66° in Sweden; while in Russia it is seldom found to 
the east of the Baltic Provinces or of the Vistula, beyond which its 
place is taken by the more rufous African Buzzard (B. desertorum of 
many authors) ; and Dr. Menzbier thinks that where the two forms 
or species meet they interbreed. From Poland westward, however, 
the Common Buzzard is generally distributed throughout Europe ; 
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