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ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



Buteo larjopus, Fi. V.MING. 



Palco tagopus, PKNNANT, 



Buteo ? Lagnpus, Lagoos, or Lagos A hare. 



Pous A foot. 



THE Rough-legged Buzzard, says the accurate Macgillivray, 

 may, like certain other bipeds, notwithstanding his boots and 

 whiskers, be really less ferocious than he seems to be. This 

 qualifying remark, however, it must be noted, is made with 

 reference to a claim put forth in behalf of the character of 

 this bird, to rescue it from the sweeping condemnation under 

 which the preceding species has in like manner fallen. 



The Rough-legged Buzzard is found in considerable numbers 

 in various parts of Europe, Africa, and America. It occurs 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, and the northern shores of 

 Africa, to Russia, Lapland, and Scandinavia; likewise in Holland 

 and France, and is common among the Rocky Mountains in 

 North America, as also in North Carolina, and other parts 

 of the United States. It is particularly abundant in some of 

 the extensive forests of Germany, and is very frequently seen in 

 the more cultivated districts which border on them. In England 

 it appears to be more plentiful in the eastern and south-eastern 

 parts, than in any others, particularly in the counties of Norfolk 

 and Sussex, in the latter of which it is said, by A. E. Knox, Esq., 

 to be the abundant species, as compared with the other called 

 the common one, which latter is there but rarely met with. 



It is quite within my own recollection that the Rough-legged 

 Buzzard was esteemed a very rare bird in this country ; in 

 fact, it is only within the last few years, that it has been 

 so much oftener observed as to have become less valuable than 

 previously on account of its supposed rarity. It is always 

 easily distinguishable by its legs being feathered down to the 

 toes, and by the permanency more or less, in all varieties. 



