i66 



WATSON : ORNITHOLOGY OF SKIDDAW, ETC. 



greyish white— now becomes black, which, set off against the gold of 

 the back, renders this Plover a handsome species. As we stood 

 amid the nesting colony, and the birds ran or wheeled, plaintively 

 piping, round our heads, it was not inappropriately remarked that 

 they looked as though in evening dress, only with the colours 

 reversed. The breeding station referred to was covered with thick 

 tussocky grass, with here and there bog holes, containing abundance 

 of water. In some cases the young were hatched, the shells being 

 left in the nest. 



Of the larger birds of prey, the Buzzard (Biiieo vulgaris) is the 

 most common among the hills. Often upon the mountains it sits 

 upon some commanding crag and remains motionless for hours. 

 Probably at this time it is digesting the prey which it has secured 

 during the hours of hunting. This must sometimes amount to a 

 vast bulk, for it is said that sixty mice have been taken from the 

 crop of a single bird. It feeds upon moles, beetles, and field-mice, 

 but rarely destroys birds and then only slow-flying ones. Grouse 

 which are weakly or ailing, it picks out, and in this way does much 

 towards stamping out disease. The shepherds destroy many Buzzards 

 in winter, taking them in fox-traps, set near a dead Herdwick, and 

 buried beneath the heather. When the buzzards are foraging for food 

 they fly low over the ground, and systematically work the valleys of 

 their neighbourhood. They are such omnivorous feeders that they 

 always seem to have abundance of food. At the same time we 

 would remark that among the hills they feed much more frequently 

 upon carrion than birds of the same species which live in the valleys. 

 No less than seventeen Buzzards were taken by the shepherds upon 

 one allotment in the manner indicated above. On a cloudless 

 summer day it is beautiful to see these birds circling high in the air, 

 until they become as but specks against the blue. Sometimes half- 

 a-dozen birds may be seen indulging at the same time in these 

 gyrations, which have evidently no other object than pleasure. 

 Although naturalists have described the Buzzard as builfling in trees, 

 this is not the case with the birds of the Lake District, as in every 

 instance that has come under my personal notice the nests have been 

 built among the rocks and crags. These are composed of sticks, 

 twigs of heather, bents, and are lined with wool. The eggs, however, 

 are as variable as the plumage of the birds themselves, which is 

 saying much. Cream-coloured specimens are hot at all uncommon, 

 these being for the most part birds of the year. At the farm-houses 

 of the dalesmen and yeomen lying contiguous to the mountains 

 named, one of the orthodox ornaments is a case of 'stuffed' birds. 

 In these the Common Buzzard is generally the most conspicuous, 



Naturalist, 



