54 • THE ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. 



succeeded in ejecting tliu original inhabitants, and establishing themselves in the ill- 

 gotten premises. The intruders seemed to have been dissatisfied with the internal 

 arrangements of the nest, and relined it with the fur of hares and rabbits. The eggs are 

 from two to five in number, and their colour is greyish-white diversified with a few 

 spots of pale brown. In the stolen crows' nest, four young were hatched, and were taken 

 from their parents just before they were fairly fledged. 



The flight of the Buzzard is rather variable. At times the bird seems inspired with 

 the very soul of laziness, and contents itself with pouncing leisurely upon its prey, 

 and returning to the branch on which it has been i^erched. Sometimes, however, 

 and especially in the breeding season, it rises high in the air, and displays a power 

 of wing and an easy grace of flight which would hardly be anticipated from its formerly 

 sluggish movements. 



The Buzzard seems to be a most affectionate mate and parent, attending closely upon 

 its home duties, and watching the safety of its young with anxious care. "NATien this 

 natural living instinct can find no vent in its proper direction, it sometimes exhibits 

 itself in a very curious manner, as was the case with a captive Buzzard whose conduct 

 has been rightly immortalized by Mr. Yarrell, in his history of the British Birds, by the 

 aid of pen and pencU. 



"A few years back a female Buzzard, kept in the garden of the Chequers Inn, at 

 Uxbridge, showed an inclination to sit, by collecting and bending all the loose sticks 

 she could obtain possession of. Her owners, noticing these actions, supplied her with 

 materials ; she completed her nest and sat on two hen's eggs, which she hatched, and 

 afterwards reared the young. Since then she has hatched and brought up a brood of 

 chicken every year. She intimates her desire to sit, by scratching holes in the ground, 

 and Ijreaking and tearing everything within her reach. One summer, in order to save 

 her the fatigue of sitting, some young chickens, just hatched, were put down to her, 

 but she destroyed the whole. Her family in June, 1831, consisted of nine ; the original 

 number was ten, but one had been lost. When flesh was given to her, she was very 

 assiduous in tearing and offering it as food to her nurslings, and appeared uneasy if, after 

 taking small portions from her, they turned away to pick up grain." 



This curious anecdote is suggestive of the many instances recorded where a predaceous 

 animal has taken to the young of some creature, which would, under other circumstances, 

 have been kdled and eaten as soon as it was seen, but which, under the influence of 

 the loving instinct which warms alike the heart of the tiger and the ewe, the hawk 

 and the dove, has been cherished and protected. The interesting anecdote of the protectrix 

 Eagle, which has been already recorded, is another example of the instinctive exhibition 

 of kindly feelings, and finds a parallel in the well-known case of the lion, which, instead 

 of eating a little dog that had been placed in his cage, took it under his care, and would 

 suffer no one to a^jproach his new friend. 



The British Islands possess another species of Buzzard, closely allied to the bird 

 which has just been described. This is the Rough-Legged Falcon, so called from 

 the manner in which its legs are covered with feathers as far as the margin of the toes. 



It is rather a larger Bird than the common Buzzard, and the colouring of the feathers 

 is rather different. The beak and upper surface is like that of the Buzzard, but the head 

 and upper part of the neck are of a pale yellow hue, each feather having a streak of the 

 darker colour down its centre. The chin, throat, and breast are of a rusty fawn, ami the 

 abdomen nearly of the same tint as the back. The whole of the plumy legs are light 

 fawn, spotted with brown, and the pinions of the Aving are brownish-black. The 

 beak and claws are black, and the cere yellow. The habits of this bird are very like those 

 of the common Buzzard, excepting that it is even more sluggish and lazy in its move- 

 ments. Like the preceding liird, it feeds on various birds and animals, which it seizes as 

 they pass near the spot on which it is standing, or pounces upon them as they sit on the 

 ground. Its flight is very owl-like, and the more so as this species is in the habit 

 of searching for its food by night as well as by day, and especially favours the hours 

 of dusk for its peregrinations. Sometinres it sits upon a tree-branch, after the fashion of 



