3l6 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Rough-legged Buzzard. Buteo lagopus (Briinn.). 



The Rough-legged Buzzard (Plate 130) breeds in northern 

 Europe and Asia, and is an irregular migrant, its movements 

 apparently regulated by weather ; occasionally it wanders south 

 in large numbers. To the British Isles it is a winter visitor 

 and passage migrant ; the majority of those which visit us are 

 immature. It has been met with in all parts, but only in the 

 north and east of Scotland and on the east coast of England 

 with any degree of regularity. Less than a score of birds have 

 been recorded from Ireland. 



The feathered tarsi of the Rough-legged Buzzard not only 

 explain its name but are responsible for its inclusion, by some 

 writers, amongst the eagles ; when it appears in any unusual 

 quarter it is generally reported in the press as an " Eagle." It 

 has the same round-winged, moth-like appearance as the 

 Common Buzzard when soaring, but, if not at too great a 

 height, the white patch on the tail is noticeable when the bird 

 turns ; in a good light its head appears almost white. It has 

 a clear ringing mee-00, louder than that of our bird ; a game- 

 keeper described it as " screaming like a cat." I have seen it 

 at close quarters on the Yorkshire coast, where it was beating 

 low over a rabbit-warren and neighbouring fields, working 

 along the ditches which divide them. Sometimes it flew fully 

 thirty feet above the ground, but it often passed near me at no 

 more than six feet elevation ; it frequently hovered almost 

 exactly like a Kestrel, its wings vibrating rapidly, its depressed 

 tail spread, when the white base and sub-terminal bar were 

 very conspicuous. Statements that the bird formerly nested 

 in Britain, which have been frequently repeated, are without 

 foundation. Quicker and stronger in flight than the Common 

 Buzzard this bird prefers larger game ; in England, where it 

 avoids woodlands, it will remain, so long as unmolested, in the 

 vicinity of a rabbit-warren, and has been known to kill leverets 



