fays, " he has feen as many as nine at one time feeding on the 
€arcafe of a Iheep on the fandy flats on the coaft of Carmar-=. 
thenfhire/^ 
It breeds ufually on the ground, though it has alfo been 
known to build on trees ; laft feafon a pair built their neft,. 
compofed of flicks, grafs, and the leaves and decayed ftalks 
of the following rufh (Butomus umbellatus) in an ofier ground 
near the Grand-Surrey-Canal,, on the Deptford-Road ; it was 
placed on a fmall hillock, juft above the water's edge, and 
contained five dufky white eggs, two of them were fplaflied 
with ruft coloured fpots at the larger end ; the female was 
fliot from the neft, and being but llightly wounded lived in 
confinement for fome months ; it was fed with frogs, mice^ 
worms, beetles, the entrails of fiih and other animals, and 
was particularly voracious. 
In its wild ftate this bird feeds on rabbits, hares, the young 
of the coot and moor-hen, it alfo frequents the haunts of 
lapwings and plovers, and deftroys numbers of their young ; it 
is not as fluggifti as the common buzzard, though by no means 
an adive bird on wing ; in the fpring whilft the female is 
incubating, the male frequently foars to a great height, and 
is on wing during the greater part of the day. 
They are very attentive to their young, and alternately go 
in queft of food ; the male has been known to relieve the 
female during the time of incubation. 
Provincial names. Bald Hawk or Buzzard, Duck Hawk, 
Wbite-Headed Harpy. 
1 
