COMMON BUZZARD. 
BUTEO VULGARIS. 
The only parts of tlie country where I have had a chance of observing this species in any numbers lia\ c 
been a few remote glens in the wilder districts of the Highlands. Here the Common Buzzard may still 
be found as a resident, breeding in any rough precipice or broken range of rocks sufficiently removed trom 
intrusion. . . 
In all the northern counties I have met with opportunities of watching a few specimens either circling 
slowly over the moors, or perched on some commanding eminence on the lull-side from which a good view of 
the surrounding country could be obtained. During the early part of winter I have on several occasions 
noticed a bird or two, apparently immature, which had taken up their quarters in the big woods near the coast 
in East Lothian. At times they might be seen sailing over the rabbit-warrens among the sandy links, the prey 
they were able to pick up in such situations being probably their attraction to the district. On the fells ol 
Cumberland and among the Yorkshire moorlands I have now and then come across a single specimen ; and in 
some parts of these counties the rocks they formerly nested in were pointed out. In Norfolk and Sussex 
a few stragglers now and then make their appearance. Those I observed in Norfolk were near the 
sca-coast in the neighbourhood of the Denes, where rabbits were plentiful ; some of these were probably 
Hough-legged Buzzards, as I seldom obtained a view sufficiently close to identify the particular species. In 
Sussex, although I never heard on any reliable authority of this bird nesting in the county, I have known 
several to show themselves early in the autumn, frequenting the wooded districts and hunting over the furze- 
covcred fields and downs. Not a few of these, I am well aware, have been, as in Norfolk, llough-legs; but 
I plainly distinguished the Common Buzzard, and have also seen several that have been shot or trapped 
by keepers, as well as others whose dilapidated remains graced either the end of the dog-kennel or the 
vermin-pole. 
I can well remember being present about thirty years ago (when a school-boy) at the death of a large 
Hawk which was nesting in a high tree in a densely timbered part of East Sussex. Several gamekeepers were 
summoned to surround the spot so as to prevent all chances of escape. The sitting bird was shot. Its size was 
large, its colour brown, and it was called a Buzzard by the keepers : these are the only particulars I can now 
call to mind. The eggs, two in number, however, fell to my share, and remained for some years in a collection 
I had formed with the assistance of the keepers of the district. They were of a dirty white tint, and, to 
the best of my recollection, corresponded exactly with eggs of this species that I have since taken in 
the Highlands. 
Though cautious and wary in most instances when approached with the gun, the Buzzard is by no means 
difficult to capture by means of traps, if set with only ordinary skill ; the young during their first season are 
still less suspicious, and are almost certain to blunder into the first trap they meet with. A few years back I 
noticed early in the autumn several immature birds frequenting a rough and stony moor that was well 
