264 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



body plump and round ; wings round ; fourth feather 

 longest : tail rounded, scarcely longer than the closed 

 wings. 



15. BUTEO VULGAKIS, Bechst. Orm Vrak. The Common 



Buzzard. D. F. 



Wings equal to the tail in length, the latter having 

 about twelve grey transverse bands on a dark brown bot- 

 tom ; shafts of the wing, and tail feathers white. Little 

 difference in the colour of the male and female (but the 

 latter is largest), and just as little difference in plumage 

 between the old and young birds. They vary very 

 much in colouring ; body colour usually dark brown ; 

 breast and belly often transversely marked with white. 

 Length about 20 in. 

 Is a spring migrant to the north, and certainly one of 



the commonest of the birds of prey, especially in the middle 



of Scandinavia. I never met with it in Lapland, nor do I 



believe that it goes so far north. 



16 BUTEO LAGOPUS, Briin. Fjosbent Vrak. The Eough- 



legged Buzzard. D. F. 



May at once be distinguished from the common 

 buzzard, by the tarsus being feathered nearly to the 

 toes, and by the root of the tail being white, two-thirds 

 of its length. A little larger than the last, and the 

 colour lighter; but they vary much. Tail scarcely 

 longer than wings. 



A summer migrant, and only seen in the south and 

 middle of the country during the periods of migration. Its 

 principal breeding haunts are the Lapland fells ; and to 

 prove how common they are in some places, I may mention 

 that in one season, 1862, just round Quickiock, I am certain 

 more than thirty nests were destroyed. I generally found 

 the nest placed on the ground, on the ledge of a rock, but 

 occasionally in a stunted tree. I may notice that, although 

 you never meet with this bird breeding in the forests at the 

 bottom of the fells, it does not seem to go far above the 

 limits of the forests, never into the snow region. Goes up 



