152 BRITISH BIRDS. 



AGGRESSIVENESS OF A BUZZARD IN WESTMOR- 

 LAND AND A GOLDEN EAGLE IN INVERNESS- 

 SHIRE. 



A REMARKABLE characteristic of the Buzzard {Buteo vulgaris) 

 is the difference in the behaviour of individual birds at the 

 nest. As a rule, it is a most inoffensive, not to say timid, 

 bird, and the approach of an intruder is the signal for the 

 parents to leave the nest at once fnd take to flight, with 

 plaintive mewings. At rare intervals, however, instances of 

 a decidedly combatative disposition occur. Mr. H. E. Forrest 

 {Vert. Fauna of N. Wales, p. 223) quotes three cases : one 

 when the Rev. C. Wolley Dod was attacked in Merioneth, and 

 the two occasions on which Mr. O. R. Owen was fiercely stooped 

 at for over an hour — also in North Wales. Last year the 

 daily papers contained an account of an attack on a visitor 

 to the Lake District by a " hawk of the Kestrel species," 

 and during the present season another instance of aggressive 

 conduct by a Buzzard took place on July 4th. The Rev. 

 Hugh F. Lloyd was near the top of 111 Bell, when a Buzzard 

 appeared and stooped at him several times, but was kept off 

 with a stick. Soon after it was joined by its mate, and the 

 two repeatedly stooped to within a yard of his head, until he 

 turned and went down the side of the fell (H. F. Lloyd, in 

 litt.). 



Another raptorial bird which rarely adopts aggressive 

 tactics is the Golden Eagle {Aquila chrysaetus). But Mr. 

 E. S. Gooch, writing from Banavie, Inverness, in the Field 

 for July 2nd, 1910, states that a Grouse, closely pursued by 

 an Eagle, took shelter between a keeper, who was seated on the 

 ground, and his retriever. The Eagle sheered off, but two 

 hours later, Avhile the same keeper Avas sheltering from a 

 thunder-shower by a burn, the Eagle swooped down on him 

 and fixed its talons in his ankle and was only killed Avitli 

 difficulty. F. C. R. Jourdain. 



ABNORMALLY COLOURED GANNET. 



DuRESTG a visit to the Bass Rock on July 14th, 1910, I noticed 

 on the wing a Gannet {Sula hassana) distinctly different from 

 its fellows, but could not locate its nesting- site. On a second 

 visit on July 31st and August 1st this was discovered, and 

 some time was spent by Mr. Riley Fortune and myself in 

 watching this bird and its normally coloured mate and in 

 photographing the pair. (Cf. Zoologist, 1910, p. 340. 



Tlie feet, tail and wing primaries were normal ; the head and 

 neck were biscuit-coloured, distinctly darker than ordinary 



