FALCONID^K. 



323 



THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



BuTEO lag6pus (J. F. Gmelin). 



The Rough-legged Buzzard — distinguishable at a glance from 

 the preceding species by having the front and sides of the legs 

 feathered to the toes — is an irregular autumnal visitor to England ; 

 considerable numbers, chiefly of immature birds, sometimes making 

 their appearance in the eastern counties, and remaining, if 

 unmolested, for the winter. In the south and west it is less 

 frequent ; but it is not rare in the midlands and northward, its line of 

 migration appearing to follow the Pennine range. In some of the 

 northern and eastern parts of Scotland it is of almost annual 

 occurrence; and in the winters of 1875-76, 1880-81, and the 

 autumn of 1891, it was numerous down to the east and even the 

 south of England. To Ireland, however, its visits have only been 

 recorded about ten times : two of these in 1891 and one in 1895, 

 all three in November. The often-repeated statement, made in 

 1836, that the Rough-legged Buzzard nested, "year after year, on 

 the ground, amongst the heather, in the moor-dells," near Hackness, 

 in Yorkshire, rests upon a gamekeeper's recollection of twenty-four 



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