140 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



Henfield and Horsham, both in aspect and the 

 general state of the plumage has very much the 

 look of a gigantic cuckoo when viewed at a 

 moderate distance. 



In the forest of St. Leonard a bird of this spe- 

 cies has also been shot by Mr. Aldridge's game- 

 keeper, and it has been met with occasionally still 

 further to the eastward, between Ashdown Forest 

 and the borders of Kent. 



The common buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) is far 

 more rare ; I have never been able to meet with 

 it among the woods where it was once a well- 

 known species, nor have I as yet succeeded in 

 obtaining one within the limits of the county.* I 

 have, however, examined a few recent examples 

 which had been shot in Sussex, and seen a few 

 cabinet specimens which were so highly prized 

 by their possessors as to be unattainable. It 

 would appear to be even more scarce in other 

 parts of England. Mr. Waterton speaks of it as 

 extinct in Yorkshire. He says, "In 1813 I had 

 my last sight of the buzzard ;" and the Rev. R. 

 Lubbock, in his ' Fauna of Norfolk,' considers it 

 equally rare in that county. He thus writes : 



* I have lately received a Sussex-killed specimen, which 

 was shot in December, at Stanmer Park, by Mr. Libbeter, 

 the son of Lord Chichester's bailiff. 



