one inch and ten lines in breadth, of a soiled white colour,
slightly spotted with pale brown. Both parent birds attend
upon and feed their young with great assiduity; and Ray,
in his letters, as recorded by Pennant, says, that the male
Buzzard will hatch and bring up the offspring if the hen
is killed. The young accompany the old ones for some little
time after they quit the n e st; and White of Selborne adds,
that they follow their dam with a piping and wailing noise.
In confinement, says Mr. Atkinson, our Buzzards are observed
to hide their food when satisfied, like the Magpie.
The extreme partiality of the Common Buzzard to the
seasonal task of incubation and rearing young birds has been
exemplified in various instances. A few years back, a female
Buzzard, kept in the garden of the Chequers Inn at Uxbridge,
showed an inclination to sit by collecting and bending
all the loose sticks she could obtain possession of. Her
owner, noticing her actions, supplied her with materials;
she completed her nest, and sat on two hen’s eggs, which
she hatched, and afterwards reared the young. Since then,
she has hatched and brought up a brood of chickens every
year. She indicates her desire to sit by scratching holes in
the ground, and breaking and tearing everything within her
reach. One summer, in order to save her the fatigue of sitting,
some young Chickens just hatched were put down to her ; but
she destroyed the whole. Her family in June 1881 consisted
of nine ; the original number were ten, but one had been
lost. When flesh was given to her, she was very assiduous
in tearing and offering it as food to her nurslings, and
appeared uneasy if, after taking small portions from her, they
turned away to pick up grain. Several other similar instances
are recorded.
Though more rare now than formerly, an enumeration of
county localities for a bird so well known will probably be
considered unnecessary. According to Mr. Thompson, as
stated in his contributions to the Natural History of Ireland,
now in course of publication in the Magazine of Zoology
and Botany, this species is of common occurrence in several
parts of Ireland. In Scotland the Buzzard is not very
plentiful, nor is it included either by the Rev. Mr. Low
or Mr. Dunn in their accounts of the Birds of Orkney and
Shetland; yet it inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and
Russia. It is well known over the wooded parts of the
continent of Europe south of Russia, and is abundant in
Holland, where, according to M. Temminck, it makes its
appearance in autumn and remains till the spring. I t inhabits
Spain and Italy, and passes over the Mediterranean
to North Africa; but Trebizond, Smyrna, and Maderia appear
to be the limits of the range of the Common Buzzard
to the southward.
In North America Dr. Richardson observed the Common
Buzzard as high as the 57th parallel of latitude, and considered
that it went still farther north. This bird visits the
fur-countries in the middle of April, and leaves by the end of
September.
The whole length of the Common Buzzard is from twenty
to twenty-two inches, depending on the sex,—the females,
as in the Falconidee generally, being the largest. From
the habit of seeking food late in the evening observed
in this species, and also in the Rough-legged Buzzard next
to be described—in the softer and more downy texture of the
feathers as compared with the plumage of the true Falcons,
the Buzzards are considered as indicating an approach to
the Owls.
The beak is bluish black, darkest in colour towards the
point; the cere yellow, the irides generally yellow : but
as the Common Buzzard, and indeed all the Buzzards, are
subject to considerable variation in the colour of their plumage,
the irides are observed to vary also, presenting some