112 BRITISH BIRDS. 



regular but rare visitor to the British Islands, occurring most commonly 

 in the immature plumage and in autumn. Although it has been obtained 

 in almost every county of England, and in certain years appears in large 

 numbers, but two reliable instances have been recorded of its remaining 

 to breed in Great Britain. Respecting one of these instances, particulars 

 are given by Mr. A. G. More in the ' Ibis' (1865, p. 12), furnished to 

 him by Mr. Alwin S. Bell, of Scarborough, as follows : " Mr. John Smith, 

 who was gamekeeper for twenty years on the estate of Sir J. V. B. John- 

 stone, remembers the Rough-legged Buzzards perfectly well ; there was no 

 mistake as to the species, as they were feathered right down to the toe-ends. 

 They used to breed, year after year, on the ground, amongst the heather, 

 in the moor-dells near Ash Hay Gill, Whisperdale, about three miles from 

 Hackness. One pair only bred every year during most of the time that 

 Mr. Smith was keeper (twenty-four years ago). They were not seen except 

 in the breeding-season. Mr. Smith has himself shot them from the nest, 

 and remembers that they sometimes had young." Mr. Edward, of Banff, 

 says (Zool. 1856, p. 5201) that its nest has been found in that neighbour- 

 hood ; and in confirmation of this statement he says that in the season 

 of 1864 he saw three young birds which were taken by a boy from a nest in a 

 wood some six miles from the town. In Scotland its appearance is 

 usually in autumn, in some years far more plentifully than in others ; and 

 as these birds are undoubtedly migrants from Northern Europe, it is but 

 natural that they are far more frequently seen on the east coast than the west. 

 Certain places in the Peak of Derbyshire, as Strines, and the moors near 

 Sheffield, appear to be in the direct line of migration of this species, and 

 rarely a year goes by without birds either being obtained or seen ; but 

 they do not appear to winter there. In the southern and western counties 

 of England it appears to occur less frequently than on the east coast ; but 

 in the eastern counties it may almost be said to be a regular visitor, 

 varying considerably in numbers in different years. In Ireland it is an 

 extremely scarce visitant, this country being too far to the west of its 

 regular southern flight; nor does it ever appear to visit Greenland, Iceland, 

 or the Faeroes. 



The true home of the Rough-legged Buzzard Eagle is in the northern 

 portions of the European and Asiatic continents. It breeds throughout 

 Arctic Europe and Asia, being a very common species in Norway and 

 Sweden, up to the North Cape, becoming rarer in Russia, yet more 

 plentiful in Siberia, where it ranges as far to the east as the watershed of 

 the Yenesay and Lena. In the winter it retires southwards, to various 

 parts of Central and Southern Europe and the steppes of Russian Tur- 

 kestan. How far to the south this species strays it is difficult to say; 

 but it has never been seen in India or Persia, nor does it ever appear to 

 cross the Mediterranean. 



