COMMON BUZZARD. 31 



time motionless on the bough of a tree, watching patiently for some small 

 quadruped, bird, or reptile to pass within its reach. As soon as it espies its 

 prey, it glides silently into the air, and, sweeping easily and rapidly down, 

 seizes it in its claws. When disturbed, it makes a short circuit, and soon 

 settles on another perch. It builds its nest on a tree, of short sticks, lining 

 it sparingly with deer's hair. The eggs, from three to five in number, are 

 equal in size to those of the domestic fowl, and have a greenish-white colour, 

 with a few large dark brown blotches at the thick end. It was seen by the 

 Expedition as far north as the fifty-seventh parallel of latitude, and it most 

 probably has a still higher range." 



Bcteo vulgaris, Common Buzzard, Rich. & Sw. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 47. 

 Common Buzzard, Falco buteo, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 108. 



Female. 



Bill short, strong, as broad as deep at the base, compressed toward the 

 end. Upper mandible cerate, its dorsal outline declinate and a little convex 

 as far as the cere, then decurved, the sides rapidly sloping, towards the end 

 nearly perpendicular but convex, the edge with a slight festoon, the tip 

 trigonal, acute; lower mandible with the angle short and rounded, the dorsal 

 line convex and ascending, the edges sharp, arched, at the end deflected, the 

 tip rounded. Nostrils irregularly obovate, in the fore part of the cere, nearer 

 the ridge than the margin. 



Head large, roundish, flattened above; neck rather short; body full. Feet 

 short, robust; tarsi roundish, anteriorly feathered half-way down, anteriorly 

 scutellate, laterally reticulate, posteriorly also scutellate; the lower part all 

 round covered with series of small scales, as are the toes for half their length, 

 the terminal portion being scutellate; they are strong, of moderate length, 

 the hind toe stouter, with four large scutella, the inner with four, the middle 

 with about eight, and connected at the base by a web with the outer, which 

 has four large scutella. Claws long, arched, compressed, tapering to a point, 

 flat beneath. 



Plumage ordinary, full, rather blended beneath. Space between the bill 

 and eye covered with bristly feathers; eyelids with soft downy feathers, and 

 ciliate; the superciliary ridge prominent. Feathers of the head and neck 

 ovato-oblong, of the back and breast ovate and rounded, of the sides and 

 outer part of the leg elongated, of the rest of the leg short. Wings long, 

 broad, the fourth quill longest, the third next, the fifth very little shorter, 

 the second longer than the fifth, the first and seventh about equal; first four 

 abruptly cut out on the inner web; secondaries broad and rounded. Tail 

 rather long, broad, slightly rounded. 



