Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/96

 when called. Mice were preferred by them to birds or any other food. When these kites were on wing, rats let ofP 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.

Buteo vulgaris, Bechst.

Falco buteo, Linn.

sent to bird-preservers in Belfast, at all seasons of the year, from the most extensive and best wooded 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,