THE ROUGH- LEGGED BUZZARD. 135 



male is 19^ inches long to end of tail, and 49 inches in extent 

 of wings; the female 22 and 57 inches, tail 9f inches long. 

 The wings are long, and extend to the end of the tail. 



On the 23rd of September 1881, after a heavy south-east 

 sea-storm, I picked up a headless, legless male buzzard near the 

 Buddo Rock, about four miles from St Andrews ; it was 

 drenched by the sea, and the wet down under the loose feathers 

 showed the skin so much that it seemed worthless as a specimen. 

 It was very fat, and weighed two pounds. A keen gunner and 

 bird fancier, who knows the value of a stuffing-bird, picked it up 

 the day before, but, thinking it was worthless, cut off the head 

 and feet and threw it away. But, knowing the loose forma- 

 tion of the feathers, I brought it home, dried, skinned, and 

 stuffed it, and was lucky in hunting up the head and legs, 

 which I stuck on, and it now looks a fine specimen of the male 

 common buzzard. Its wing had been broken by a shot. On 

 opening its stomach I found the remains of beetles in it. 

 Ornithologists generally commend the poor buzzard to the 

 forbearance of the gamekeepers as a friend to the farmer in 

 keeping down mice and noxious insects, as "just the instrument 

 of Nature wanted to clear off sickly young birds, which on 

 arriving at maturity yield an offspring of a degenerate breed." 

 I would go further, and, in the interest of the sheep-farmer, 

 make it a penalty to shoot one, as the Southern States of 

 America are forced to do with the alligators, to keep down the 

 plague of rats and mice. 



The Rough-Legged Buzzard or Falcon. 



(Buteo Lag opus. J Flem. 



" E'en a crow of the same nest ; not altogether so great as 



the first in goodness, but greater a great deal in evil. 



He excels his brother for a coward, yet his brother is 



reputed one of the best that is." — All's Well that 



Ends Well. 



The rough-legged falcon or buzzard closely resembles the last 

 in size, form, and plumage, except that the tarsi are feathered to 

 the toes instead of being half bare. There is considerable 

 difference in the colour of this species in the proportion of brown 

 to yellowish white ; in some the darker colour predominates, the 



