Rough-legged Buzzard 217 



it is comparativelx' scarce, but it is very rarely tliat a season passes 

 without an occasional appearance of this visitor. 



In the " Buzzard years," when they come in rushes, November 

 is the great month for their arrival. Probably, if they were 

 unmolested, they would make themselves at home on the big East- 

 Anglian warren, where the rabbits, which are their chief source of 

 food, are plentiful, and would stop until the early spring. But this 

 partiality for rabbits leads to their undoing. The warreners, who 

 are then busily engaged in killing rabbits in these same grounds, 

 naturally do not care for the partnership of the Buzzard, and they 

 t'niplo}' every means at their disposal to destroy him. 



These Buzzards are very easily enticed with a rabbit as bait, 

 and large numbers fall victims, either to trap or gun, at this time. 

 I imagine that at least 75 per cent, of the Buzzards that reach our 

 shores in the autumn are killed within six weeks or less of their 

 arrival. Consequently, there is only one quarter of the original 

 migration left to stock the country-side for the remaining winter 

 and early spring months. The big rushes, so far as I know, always 

 occur in the latter half of October and throughout November. 

 What are found in the country after that date are the remnants of 

 those bodies. I don't think there is any serious migration into the 

 country after the end of November. 



Of the many Rough-legged Buzzards which are obtained in 

 Great Britain during the late autumn months, by far the larger 

 proportion are immature specimens. That is one reason why they 

 are so easily trapped, or otherwise done to death. Adults are 

 exceedingly scarce. Of the eleven birds in m}' collection (stuffed 

 or in skin), ten are birds of the year, and only one is adult or even 

 approximating to adult plumage. I believe that one adult to ten 

 immature is far too high an average, and that a series of a 

 hundred British skins would not produce more than two or three 

 adults. 



There is no reason to belie\'e that this bird has ever bred with 

 us, and the fuller the knowledge of its normal breeding-range the less 

 likely does it appear that it ever will do so. There are two reported 

 occurrences of its supposed breeding : one case in Yorkshire, and 

 the other in Scotland, but the evidence is quite unsatisfactory, 

 and the records are discredited by most ornithologists of the present 

 day. 



Food (Table IV.)— Of the eleven birds in m}- collection, all 

 obtained on the coast of Suffolk, iive contained fur. flesh and bones 

 of rabbit and nothing else. 



Three contained small rodents or insectivores — field-voles, 

 long-tailed field-mice and common shrew. 



In one the stomach was empty ; of one no note was made ; 

 and in the only adult, a male, a few vegetable fibres and a piece of 

 stick is all that is noted. 



