244 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



October, 1865. It has also been killed at Brucklay and near 

 Strathbeg. 



Buzzard. — Buteo vulgaris, Leach. Has been seen at Brucklay 

 Castle by Mr. J. Henderson, lately keeper there, and is pretty 

 common along the coast. Many are trapped and shot by keepers 

 every year. 



Bough-legged Buzzard. — Buteo lag opus (Gm.). Usually 

 rather a rare bird, but Mr. G. Sim tells me that during the last 

 two seasons they have been more than usually abundant all along 

 the east coast. Two specimens were killed at Troup Head in 

 December, 1865; one at Aden in the same month; and another 

 at Troup in 1867. 



Peregrine Falcon. — Falco peregrinus, Tunstall. Has been seen 

 at Brucklay frequently, and killed at Aberdour. Not an uncom- 

 mon bird by any means, though rarer than it used to be. 



Merlin. — Falco aesalon, Tun. Common. 



Obs. Hobby. — Falco subbuteo, Lin. I have no doubt that 

 this species has been obtained in the district, but I have only heard 

 of one killed near the town of Banff — but whether on the east or 

 west side of the Deveron I cannot say — and an immature 

 specimen picked up at sea, off the coast of Aberdeenshire, and sold 

 to Mr. George Sim.* 



Obs. Bed-footed Falcon. — Falco vespertinus, Lin. Mr. Sim 

 informs me that a specimen of this rare British bird was killed on 

 the Hill of Fiddes, near Foveran, at mouth of Ythan, 29th 

 May, 1866. 



Kestrel. — Falco tinnunculus, Lin. Common. 



Golden Eagle. — Aquila chrysa'etus (Lin.). This noble bird was 

 formerly comparatively common along the cliffs from Slains to 

 Troup Head. " At one period a pair of Eagles regularly nestled 

 and brought forth their young in the rocks of Pennan, but 

 according to the tradition of the country, when the late Earl of 

 Aberdeen purchased the estate of Auchmedden from the Bairds, 

 the former proprietors, the Eagles disappeared, in fulfilment of a 

 prophecy by Thomas the Rhymer that there should be an Eagle in 

 the crags while there was a Baird in Auchmedden. But the most 

 remarkable circumstance, and what certainly appears incredible, is, 

 that when Lord Haddo, eldest son of Lord Aberdeen, married 



* Gray's "Birds of West of Scotland," p. 30. 



