122 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



and usually very low, just above the ground. Sometimes it may be seen 

 sitting on the road-side, on a large stone or fence, from which it flaps 

 slowly forward to secure, with unerring certainty, some mouse or other 

 small mammal. At times the Buzzard flies at a great height, sailing 

 slowly about the heavens in graceful swoops and curves, its broad wings 

 and tail expanded to their fullest extent, the motion of the tail helping to 

 guide the bird through space. 



In the typical form of the Common Buzzard the tail is crossed with 

 about ten pale bars, and has a slight pale tip ; legs and toes yellow ; claws 

 black ; beak bluish black ; cere yellow ; irides yellowish brown, dark hazel 

 in the young. 



Three other species belonging to the genus Buteo have been recorded as 

 occurring in the British Islands. The Red-tailed Buzzard {Buteo borealis), 

 a species inhabiting Eastern North America and the West Indies, is said 

 to have been killed, in the aiitumn of 1 860, in Nottinghamshire. Another 

 American species, the Red-shouldered Buzzard [Buteo Uneatus) , is reported 

 to have been killed in Invernessshire in 1863, and is recorded in ' The Ibis ' 

 for 1865 (p. 549). Lastly, the African Bu.zzard {Buteo desertorum) , of 

 which three examples are said to have been obtained : the first was killed 

 at Everley, Wiltshire, in September 1864 ; the other two specimens were 

 obtained in Northumberland — one near Newcastle in 1830, the other 

 at Tynemouth in November 1870. There is no evidence to prove that 

 these birds had not escaped from confinement; nor is it certain that the 

 identification was correct. 



