n 
FALCONIDjE. 
when called. Mice were preferred by them to birds or any other 
food. When these kites were on wing, rats let off from the cage- 
trap were expertly caught by them. At the shooting- quarters of 
Aberarder, in Inverness-shire, a locality apparently well suited to 
the kite, only one bird was seen by the last-named gentleman 
during the three autumnal months of 1838 and 1839. 
I have met with this most interesting bird amid fine scenery in 
the west of Scotland ; — in the deer-park at Inverary, and towards 
the head of the beautiful valley of Glenapp, Ayrshire. In the 
summer of 1826 I observed it in Switzerland and Italy; and in 
the celebrated Black Forest of Germany, it was particularly com- 
mon, admitting there of a close approach without exhibiting any 
fear. 
THE BUZZARD. 
Buteo vulgaris , Beclist. 
Falco buteo, Linn. 
Is generally to be found in suitable localities. 
Specimens sent to bird-preservers in Belfast, at all seasons of 
the year, from the most extensive and best w r ooded demesnes in 
Down and Antrim, have come under my notice. In such haunts 
the buzzard builds in trees. But in the retired and mountainous 
parts of the country, where not a tree is to be found, it is equally 
at home, and forms its nest in the cliffs. This bird has a fine 
appearance when soaring high up towards the blue heaven in a 
bright summer day. The first exclamation of the ordinary 
spectator, at the moment of so beholding it, is— “ an eagle," — 
which the buzzard, indeed, strongly resembles in general contour, 
more especially in the comparatively roundish outline of its ex- 
panded wings ; but to the eye of the ornithologist, the size at once 
marks it as a much humbler species, however like the royal bird 
it may soar. 
When at Rosheen mountain, near Dunfanaghy,— before men- 
tioned as having contained an eyrie of the golden eagle, — in June, 
1832, we saw a pair of buzzards, and heard their young call from 
the nest on a ledge of rock, midway down a precipice. This site. 
