BIRDS OF PREY 153 



in spring to their old homes, sooner or later, according as they find, 

 earlier or later, an abundant supply of food. (Observe the order in 

 which our most familiar species migrate in spring and autumn. What 

 birds are winter visitants only in this country?) Such birds as find 

 sufficient food with us in the winter do not depart during this season. 

 These either remain throughout the whole of the winter in their original 

 home (residents), or they rove about the country, mostly in flocks, in 

 search of food (birds of passage ; give examples). 



ORDER I.: BIRDS OF PREY (RAPTORES). 



Uppek mandible hooked at the end and overlapping the lower ; at the 

 base of the upper mandible, a cere (naked skin), surrounding the nostrils. 

 Feet with large curved talons. Young helpless. 



Family 1 : Falcons (Falconidas). 



The Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris). 



(Length from 20 to 24 inches.) 



A. Name. 



The name buzzard is derived from the German words Buse, which is 

 equivalent to cat, inasmuch as the cry of the bird resembles the mewing 

 of the latter animal, and Aar = Adler — Anglice " eagle." Thus, buzzard 

 denotes " cat-eagle." In Germany the present species is known as the 

 " mice-buzzard," in allusion to the food of the animal, which consists 

 principally of these injurious rodents. 



B. Food. 



About sixteen mice are consumed in a day, and as many as twenty, or 

 even more, have been found in the crop and stomach of this bird. It also 

 consumes hamsters, rats, and especially grasshoppers, and is not afraid of 

 attacking the poisonous viper. Occasionally, during a severe winter, it 

 may also seize upon a young deer, or a hare or partridge ; but its great 

 services as a destroyer of vermin during the summer far outbalance these 

 exceptional depredations, and the buzzard ought, therefore, to be care- 

 fully protected. Indeed, it performs in the fields the services of the cat in 

 the house. (Compare the two animals on the points discussed in 

 Section D.) 



C. Habitat. 



The habitat of this bird is correlated with the nature of its food. It 

 frequents by preference ploughed fields, rich grasslands and small woods, 



