38 
ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 
Buteo laaopus, FLEMING. 
falco lagopus, PENNANT, 
Buteo—........... ? Lagopus, Lagéos, or Lagis—A hare. 
Pous—A toot. 
THE Rough-legged Buzzard, says the accurate Macgillivray, 
may, like certain other bipeds, notwithstanding his boots and 
whiskers, be really less ferocious than he seems to be. This 
qualifying remark, however, it must be noted, is made with 
reference to a claim put forth in behalf of the character of 
this bird, to rescue it from the sweeping condemnation under 
which the preceding species has in lke manner fallen. 
The Rough-legged Buzzard is found in considerable numbers 
in various parts of Europe, Africa, and America. It occurs 
from the Cape of Good Hope, and the northern shores of 
Africa, to Russia, Lapland, and Scandinavia; likewise in Holland 
and France, and is common among the Rocky Mountains in 
North America, as also in North Carolina, and other parts 
of the United States. It is particularly abundant in some of 
the extensive forests of Germany, and is very frequently seen in 
the more cultivated districts which border on them. In England 
it appears to be more plentiful in the eastern and south- eastern 
parts, than in any others, particularly in the counties of Norfolk 
and Sussex, in the latter of which it is said, by A. E. Knox, Ksq., 
to be the abundant species, as compared with the other called 
the common one, which latter is there but rarely met with. 
It is quite within my own recollection that the Rough-legged 
Buzzard was esteemed a very rare bird in this country; in 
fact, it is only within the last few years, that it has been 
so much oftener observed as to have become less valuable than 
previously on account of its supposed rarity. It is always 
easily distinguishable by its legs being feathered down to the 
toes, and by the permanency more or less, in all varieties, 
