20'. 
THE COMMON BUZZARD. 
Buteo vulgaris. — Beehstein. 
PLATE XVIII. 
Palco buteo, Linn Buteo vulgaris, Bechstem, Fleming — 
Common Buzzard of Brit. Ornithologists. 
The Common Buzzard is not an uncommon 
species in Britain, frequenting the more cultivated 
plains and woodlands of England, as well as the 
very wildest parts of Scotland. In the former, it 
is a bird of decidedly sylvan habits, delighting in 
the more extensive chases and parks where there is 
abundance of aged timber, or in the tracts which 
still bear the name of forests ; in the latter fre- 
quenting the Alpine districts, and breeding on the 
edges of the ravines with which they are so abun- 
dantly intersected. In either case, the nest is 
built of large sticks, with a scanty lining of wool 
or hair ; the site, an aged tree or some ledge of 
rock; the eggs, three or four in number, of a 
rounded form, bluish or greenish white, with 
pale brown blotches and spots or streaks most 
crowded at the thicker end. (See Plate XVI 
fig. 1.) In its habits it is sluggish and inae- 
