BIRDS OBSERVED IN 1891. 63 



honry pino-tree, the patriareh of the forest, and tlic one most 

 dilHiult ot' access. It is here, but sometimes also just on the 

 borderland of the forests, that the buzzard finds the solitude of his 

 choice, the seclusion which he loves. Nothinc; breaks the silence 

 here save the occasional cry of a blackcock or the lij^ht tread of 

 the mountain-hare as it hurries off at your approach. Tlie scenery 

 around is grand, befitting surroundings to such an abode. The 

 distant mountains come out in bold outline against the clear 

 morning sky ; and the sunlight glistens brightly on the red bark of 

 the pines around you. The nest is situated on a flat branch, some 

 60 feet fi-om the ground." The cry of the buzzard is supposed to 

 foretell rain. Clare writes, in the ' Village Minstrel ' : 



" Slow o'er the wood tlie puttock sails, 

 Aud mournful as the storms arise, 

 His feeble note of sorrow wails 



To the uupitying frowuiug skies." * 



Dresser says: "This is now a rare bii'd in Great Britain ... It 

 is stated to be more numerous in North Devon than in other 

 counties ... It is as a rule a peaceable and quiet bird, but fights 

 desperately during the breeding season." Benzon says that a friend 

 of his saw a tough battle between two buzzards, which, after 

 fighting for some time in the air, came to the ground in close 

 combat and still continiied to fight with such ferocity that he was 

 able to walk up and kill them with his riding- whip. This was in 

 Denmark. Nilsson states that in South Sweden "numbers are 

 caught and used for food on their passage south through Skane." 



The RouGn-LEGGED Buzzard [Buteo Imjopus). — At our last 

 meeting, held on the 19th of February, Lord Ebury exhibited a 

 beautiful specimen of the rough-legged buzzard which was captured 

 in a trap in Bishop's Wood, Rickmausworth, on the Moor Park 

 estate. The legs and toes of the common buzzard are yellow and 

 bare of feathers, whereas the rough-legged buzzard is feathered as 

 low down as the origin of the toes, the feathers on the legs, as Mr. 

 Stradling pointed out, taking the place of scales. Two of these 

 rare birds were obtained in ]S^ovember last at the Tring Reservoirs. 



Dresser states : "In summer this bird inhabits jS^orthern Europe 

 and Asia, migrating in winter into Central and Southern Asia and 

 Europe ... It is a rare straggler to Great Britain, and almost 

 always in immature plumage. It has been killed in almost every 

 county, and has been known even to breed with us." Stevenson, 

 in his ' Birds of Norfolk,' states that their numbers vary in 

 different seasons, very scarce some years, great quantities in others. 

 In the winter of 1839-40 (November, December, and January) not 

 less than 47 specimens were taken near Thetford, and many others 

 elsewhere; few were seen afterwards till 1858, when they were 

 again numerous. 



The Comjiox Heron (Ardea cinered). — Mr. Buller writes: "On 

 the 4th of April one of the finest old male herons which I have 



* Puttock is the buzzard's name in the Eastern and Midland Counties. 



