306 THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



Mr, Eobert Gray, the well-known author of The Birds 

 of the West of Scotland, records a male shot near Cold- 

 ingham about the end of October 1875,^ and a female 

 killed in the same locality on the 1st of March 1877.^ A 

 Eough-Legged Buzzard frequented Lamberton Moor for about 

 a fortnight in December 1878, being sometimes seen in the 

 Lang Belt Plantation there ; and, after the heavy snow- 

 storm came on, it used to visit the stackyard at Lamberton 

 Shiels, apparently for the purpose of catching mice.^ A 

 specimen was shot while pursuing a grouse on Quixwood 

 Moor on the 15th of January 1880,^ and another was killed 

 by the gamekeeper at Ladykirk, near Bendibus, on the 

 Tweed, in December of the same year.^ 



When this species visits Berwickshire it seems to 

 prefer the opener districts of the county, and especially 

 those abounding with rabbits, upon which, with smaller 

 quadrupeds, such as mice,^ and likewise birds and reptiles, 

 it chiefly preys. 



The Eough-Legged Buzzard, which varies considerably 

 in its plumage, may be easily distinguished by its legs being 

 feathered down to the toes. 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 463. 



2 Ibid. vol. viii. p. 155. ■' Ibid. vol. viii. p. 503. 

 •1 Information from Mr. Hogg of Quixwood. 



■J Information from Mr. Basset, gamekeeper, Ladykirk. 



6 During the plague of mice on some of the pastoral farms in Roxburghshire, 

 in 1876-77, as many as six or seven Rough-Legged Buzzards were sometimes seen 

 on the wing at once, in places where the mice were most plentiful. — Hist. Ber. 

 Nat. Club, vol. viii. p. 456. 



