“There is another variety of buzzard, the hawk-buzzard, that does us good service in its fondness for larvæ, caterpillars, and insects generally, particularly wasps.” [[151]]
“What, those wasps that hurt so when they sting?” asked Emile.
“Yes, my boy; this buzzard feasts on the wasps whose sting is so painful to us; it swallows them without a thought of their sting, just as the hedgehog devours the viper and never worries about its venomous fangs. The bird attacks their nests with its beak and pulls out the nymphs from their cells, carrying them, fat and tender, to its little ones.
Rough-legged Buzzard
“This buzzard is a somewhat smaller bird than the common buzzard. Its back is brown, its throat light yellow with brown stripes, and its breast and stomach white sprinkled with dark heart-shaped spots. The tail is crossed by three wide dark bands, the beak is black, and, finally, the head of the old male is bluish-gray. The bird nests in woods, in tall trees, and its eggs are rather small, being yellowish-white in color, but with so thick a sprinkling of large brown spots as sometimes almost to hide the color underneath.
“The feather-legged buzzard has legs covered with long feathers, as in certain species of pigeons bearing the same qualifying name. It frequents river banks, uncultivated fields, and woods, and lives [[152]]on field-mice, moles, reptiles, and if need be on insects.
Snake-buzzard
(Also called short-toed eagle)