56 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Rough -legged Buzzards in the Lothians, etc. --An un- 

 usually well-marked immigration of this large bird of prey into 

 Scotland occurred last October, with the inevitable result that a 

 good many were soon shot, trapped, or poisoned, and sent to the 

 bird-stuffers. The first I sa\v was received in Edinburgh from 

 Forfarshire on gth October ; then came one from Orkney on the 

 1 9th, and one from Dumfriesshire on the 2oth. On the 26th one 

 was seen near Gorebridge, while on the 3ist I had the pleasure of 

 seeing one on the wing at the head of Hope's Water, Lammermuir 

 Hills, above Yester. By this time a number had settled down, as I 

 afterwards learned, on the Pentland Hills. Three were first noticed 

 there about the middle of October on a hillside near Logan House ; 

 a few days later four were observed, and then more. One was shot 

 shortly after their first appearance, and a second on 5th November. 

 On 7th November no less than eight were seen above Loganlee by 

 one of the keepers, and on the same day a third was shot. On 

 1 5th November Messrs. Eagle Clarke and T. G. Laidlaw were 

 up the glen and saw at least four, that number being in view at 

 the same time, hunting the hillsides on the south of Glencorse 

 Reservoir. Mr. Clarke having kindly told me what he had seen, I 

 went out on the i6th as far as Loganlee at the upper end of the 

 glen, and spent several delightful hours watching the birds as they 

 moved to and fro in graceful circles or hung like giant Kestrels in 

 the air without any perceptible motion of its wings one poised 

 itself head to wind over a particular spot for seventy seconds. Two 

 always kept close together, but the others hunted far apart, so that 

 I had never more than four in view at once. Mr. H. Raeburn, 

 however, was more fortunate on the 2oth, when he saw seven leave 

 the rocks at Nether Habbie's Howe ; it was blowing hard from the 

 west, and no doubt they had congregated there for shelter. In 

 order to ascertain if they were still frequenting the Pentlands, I 

 went over to Loganlee again on i5th December and saw several- 

 there were three if not five ; and heard that another the fourth- 

 had been shot on 3rd December. A beautiful male, now in my 

 collection, was found lying dead in a park at Mortonhall, close to 

 Edinburgh, on 24th November, and on the 28th one was sent from 

 Fife to be stuffed, as had been a second from Forfarshire on the i6th. 

 Those frequenting the Pentlands have, I believe, been living largely 

 on moles, which have been very abundant on some of the hillsides 

 there of late, though no doubt a good many rabbits have also been 

 taken by them. One of the birds when shot at dropped a mole, 

 and I found two partly devoured moles on a grassy slope over 

 which they were seen to hunt much. All the specimens I have 

 examined seem to be immature birds. 



Attention may be drawn to the fact that on i6th October a 

 dozen Rough-legged Buzzards were seen in the neighbourhood of 



