BUZZARD, Buteo, a genus of accipitres (q.v.), or birds of prey, of the family falcon ithE, having a rather small and weak bill, which bends from the base, and is not notched, as in falcons. The legs are short and strong, the tarsi covered with scales or with feathers, the toes short, and the claws strong. Buzzards may be regarded as an inferior kind of eagles; they do not possess courage equal to that of eagles and falcons, nor equal strength of bill or claws. They are large birds: the common B. (B. c alga?* measuring almost 4 ft. from tip to tip of its outstretched wings. It is a bird still pretty common in Britain, although much less so than it formerly was. It is subject to varia tions of plumage; the prevailing color is brown, with a considerable mixture of black on the upper parts, and of white or grayish-white on the under. It is sluggish and inactive, in comparison with many other birds of the same family; is usually slow in its flight, and often sits long on a tree, watching for prey, which, when it perceives, it glides silently into the air, and sweeping rapidly down, seizes it in its claws. This B. is plentiful in all the wooded parts of Europe; it is found also in the n. of Africa, and is known to exist in the western parts of Asia; but it is doubtful how far it extends over that continent, a distinct although very similar species occurring in the Himalaya moun tains. The common B. is, however, a North American bird. Tame female buzzards have been known in several instances to exhibit so strong a propensity for incubation, and the rearing of young, at the proper season, that they have hatched hens' eggs and brought up the chickens, although if chickens not of their own hatching were brought within their reach, they devoured them. Meat given to the B. nurse was carefully
divided among her nurslings, but they found out by their own instincts the use of grain and other vegetable food.—The rough-legged B. (B. lagopus) is very similar to the com mon B., but is at once distinguished by having the tarsi feathered to the toes, whilst in the common B. they are covered with scales. It is a rarer British bird, yet not of unfre quent occurrence; it is very widely (Effused, being found in the old world from Lapland to the cape of Good Hope, and equally common in North America. It is most fre quently to be seen in marshy districts, and often skimming over marshes, where it makes prey of frogs.—The red-tailed hawk of .North America is a species of B. (buteo borealis). It is in very bad repute among American farmers and housewives for its fre quent invasion of poultry-yards, from which it has acquired the name of hen-hawk. Several other species of B. appear to be limited to particular parts of the world, as buteo jackal—so called from the resemblance of its voice to that of the jackal—to s. Africa, and B. melanosternon to Australia. The Australian species has the head, chest, and center of the belly deep black. The honey-buzzards (q.v.) belong to a different genus, although nearly allied to the true buzzards, as are also the harriers (q.v.), of which the most common British species, the marsh harrier, is sometimes called the moor buzzard.— Bald B. is the name of the osprey (q.v.).