FALCONTD.E
RAPTORES. FALCONID&.
T H E COMMON BUZZARD.
Falco buteo, The Buzzard, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 2 3 2 .
tl Common Buzzard, Montagu, Ornith. Diet.
j; The Buzzard, B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 2 2 .
Buteo vulgaris, Common Buzzard, F lem. Brit. An. p. 54.
,, Selby, Brit. Ornith. v o l. i. p. 5 5 .
,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 87.
,, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
Falco buteo, La Buse, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 63.
B uteo. Generic Characters.—Bill rather small and weak, bending from the
base, part of the cutting edge of the upper mandible slightly projecting; cere
large; nostrils oval. Wings ample : the first quill-feather short, about equal
in length to the seventh, the fourth the longest; the first four feathers with the
inner webs deeply notched. Tarsi short, strong, scaled or feathered. Toes
short; claws strong.
T h e B u z z a r d is one of the most common of the larger
kind of Hawks which inhabit the wooded districts of this
country, preying upon small quadrupeds, birds, and even
reptiles. Bulky in appearance and rather slow in flight,
it remains for hours watching from the same tree, appearing
to prefer the accidental approach of an animal that may serve
for a meal rather than find it by a laborious search, and is
seldom observed to remain long together upon the wing. Its
courage too, as compared with others of the Falconidte, has
been questioned; since it is known to attack such animals as
are either young or defenceless, which it does not pursue and
capture by its powers of flight, but pounces at upon the
ground. Though occasionally seen soaring in the air in
circles, it is much more frequently stationed on a tree, from
which if approached it bustles out, as observed by the author
of the Journal of a Naturalist, with a confused and hurried
flight, indicative of fear.
Mr. Macgillivray, in his descriptions of the Rapacious
Birds of Great Britain, gives the Buzzard a character for
greater activity in Scotland, as observed by himself; but
the nature of the country may be the cause of this difference
in habit, and much greater exertion is perhaps absolutely
necessary to ensure a sufficient supply of food. In Scotland
the Buzzard “ forms its nest on rocks, or on the edges of steep
scars or beds of t o r r e n t s o n e nest described by the writer
last named “ was placed on the top of a steep bank or rut
of a stream, and was composed of twigs, heath, wool, and
some other substances.1’ In England the Buzzard usually
builds, or takes to, a nest in the forked branches of a tree
in a large wood: the materials with which the nest is made,
or repaired, are similar to those that have been already
named.
The female lays two or three, and sometimes four eggs,
of a short oval form, two inches three lines in length by