314 ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



it is amazing to find it has been seriously accepted. The assertion by 

 Thomas Edward that the nestlings were taken from a wood near 

 Banff in 1864, is far less unlikely, though probably as incorrect as 

 many of his other records of rarities. 



The Rough-legged Buzzard is the commonest bird of prey in the 

 higher districts of Scandinavia, and — beyond the wooded region- — in 

 Russia : in the latter it breeds, irregularly, as far south as lat. 56°, as 

 well as in the Baltic Provinces ; while in winter it goes down to the 

 northern shores of the Caspian and to the Asiatic side of the Black 

 Sea. Eastward it is found in Siberia as far as the watershed of the 

 Yenesei and the Lena in summer (Seebohm), and in Turkestan 

 during the cold season. Wanderers have occurred in Malta and 

 other islands of the Mediterranean, as well as on the mainland of 

 Italy ; but the bird recorded under this name by Spanish authors is 

 the Booted Eagle, Aquila peiinata : the Rough-legged Buzzard is, 

 however, an occasional winter-visitor to the Pyrenees ; though only 

 frequent to the north of the Alps and the Carpathians. In North 

 America it is represented by the more rufous and darker B. sandi- 

 johannis, fondly believed to visit England by owners of deep-coloured 

 examples of the European bird. 



The nest is built of sticks when placed in trees, but is a slighter 

 structure lined with grass when on a crag. The eggs, often laid 

 by the middle of May, are from 3-5. in number, and similar to those 

 of the preceding species ; though the average dimensions are a trifle 

 larger, and the markings are sometimes very handsome. This 

 Buzzard feeds, to some extent, on frogs, reptiles and birds, but 

 largely on such small mammals as lemmings, moles and mice ; it 

 can even manage an x\rctic hare, while its partiality for rabbits has 

 often proved fatal to it on the w'arrens of Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 Open or marshy moorlands are more to its taste than wooded 

 districts, in which respect it differs from the Common Buzzard; 

 its flight is bolder ; and in the air the w^hite on the tail forms a 

 good distinction. By some authorities this and other species with 

 feathered legs have been placed in a separate genus, Archibideo. 



The general colour of the adult is bufifish-white, variegated with 

 several shades of brown, darkest on the back and rump ; basal part 

 of tail white, and the remainder with two or three dark brown bars 

 on a mottled ground ; legs feathered to the toes on the front and 

 sides. Length 23-26 in. ; the female being larger than the male. 

 The immature bird, represented in the woodcut, is browner in 

 plumage and has less white on the tail ; the under parts are streaked 

 — not barred — with brown. 



