100 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



nests, these being often easily accessible without the aid of ropes or 

 other appliances. That the species, however, nests in trees as well as 

 among rocks, is undoubted, and Colonel Irby (Orn. Strs. Gib., p. 38) 

 mentions having obtained a nest of this bird with two eggs, from the 

 top of a high olive-tree at Garbia, West Marocco, and having shot 

 the pair of old birds, one of them off the nest. These two specimens 

 are in the Lilford collection, now in my possession ; they are both 

 very rufous coloured birds, and darker than the majority of Tunisian 

 examples. The nest of this Buzzard is a bulky flat structure, com- 

 posed, as a rule, of sticks and twigs, with a lining of wool and grass, 

 but in districts where the Haifa, or Esparto-grass grows plentifully, 

 it is often composed entirely of that material. The usual complement 

 of eggs appear to be three, but often only two are laid. In colouring 

 and marking, as well as in size and shape, the eggs vary not a little, 

 being, however, generally of a faint bluish, or greenish-white, spotted 

 and blotched with rusty-brown. They are often, however, spotless, 

 or very slightly streaked with dark brown, and occasionally have pale 

 lilac shell-marks and dark brown surface-spots and blotches. Average 

 measurements 55 x 45 mm. Both sexes appear to take part in the 

 incubation of the eggs. 



BUTEO FEROX (Gmelin). 

 LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



Falco ferox, S. G. Gmcl. N. Comm. Petrop. xv, p. 442, tab. x (1709). 

 Buteo ferox, Thien. J.f. 0. 1853, p. 108 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds lint. Mus. i, 

 p. 176 ; Koenig, J.f. 0. 1888, p. 158 ; id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 340. 



Description. — Adult male, from North Tunisia. 



Forehead creamy-white, with fine brown striations ; crown pale rufescent 

 brown, with rather darker striations ; nape white, sparingly streaked with 

 brown ; rest of upper parts earth-brown, the feathers of tiie mantle and 

 wing-coverts margined with rufous ; primaries dull black, their outer webs 

 silvery-grey, and their inner webs pure white on the basal half ; secondaries 

 brown, with their inner webs white, barred and marbled with rufescent- 

 brown ; tail creamy-white on the basal portion, becoming rufescent-brown 

 towards the tip and slightly barred with darker brown on most of the 

 feathers ; chin and throat creamy-white, with very tine striations ; breast 



