KOUGH-LEGPtEI) BIjZZARD. 119 



woodcut from a European example is to be found in Cooper's 

 ' Birds of California,' where as in the rest of North America 

 the true Bitteo lagoims is represented by a closely allied 

 species, the B. sancti-johan7iis, characterized by its o^enerally 

 more rufous, and sometimes much darker plumage. 



As already stated, the Rough-legged Buzzard is subject to 

 some considerable individual variation, and it is impossible 

 in a few w^ords to give a description that shall meet all cases. 

 Some adult birds in the Norwich Museum, however, present 

 an appearance as follows. The beak is dark horn-colour, 

 the cere yellow and irides hazel. The lores are thickly set 

 with black hairs. The top of the head, ear-coverts and 

 back of the neck are white, each feather having a dark yel- 

 lowish-brown streak along the shaft, which streaks increase 

 in width backward so that less and less of the white is 

 shewn, and in some examples almost all admixture of white 

 disappears upon the back and scapulars, while in others the 

 feathers of these parts are white, with two or more broad 

 and irregular bars, a broad terminal band of dark brown, 

 and occasionally an edging of rust-colour. The upper 

 wing-coverts are similar, but there is usually a good deal 

 of white shewn along the outer edge of the fore-arm and 

 wrist. The primaries are brownish-black, often hoary on 

 the outer web, with a large patch of pure white at the base. 

 The secondaries and tertials are greyish-brown with several 

 bands of blackish-brown and a greyish-white tip. The 

 lower part of the back deep brown, the upper tail-coverts 

 white with two or more broad brown bars. The tail is pure 

 white at the base, and then crossed with two or three bars of 

 dark brown, the distal bar being about twice as broad as the 

 others, and the interspaces and tip white, often mottled with 

 greyish-brown and ferruginous. The chin, throat and upper 

 part of the breast, white with a dark brown irregularly shaped 

 patch in each feather, these patches being largest on the 

 sides of the breast, but altogether ceasing across its middle, 

 to reappear suddenly, a little lower down, in the more 

 regular form of brownish-black bars, which extend over the 

 belly and thighs. The under tail-coverts pure white. The 



