FALCONIM. 185 



COMMON BUZZARD, Buteo vulgaris. One of our 

 most uncommon birds. Page 140. 



ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD, Buteo lagopus. An 

 accidental winter visitor to the south of England, 

 but much less rare than the so-called common 

 species. During very hard weather a sprinkling 

 of these stragglers from the north is always found 

 on our shores, either near the inlets of the sea 

 south of Chichester, the marshy tracts of meadow 

 land at the mouths of the navigable rivers, on 

 Amberley flats, or on Lewes Levels. An example 

 of this bird in my possession was trapped at Bos- 

 ham, in January, 1839. It was disturbed in the 

 act of devouring a rabbit which it had just killed, 

 and a fragment of its prey being used as a bait, the 

 poacher was secured on the following morning. 



During that severe winter I examined four re- 

 cent specimens of the rough-legged buzzard, all 

 of which were obtained in the south-western part 

 of the county, and I received intelligence that 

 others had been shot about this time near Shore- 

 ham and Pevensey, and even on some of the wild 

 commons in the interior, but I can record no in- 

 stance of its having been observed among the 

 great woods of the weald. 



It has also occurred at Falmer, and at Ashburn- 

 ham Park; and Mr. W. Borrer, of Cowfold, informs 

 me that a specimen was killed at Henfield, on the 



