THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD EAGLE. 113 



In Nepal, Thibet, and possibly in China the present species is represented 

 by A. strophiatus of Hodgson, which has the crown of the head, throat, 

 and chest uniform brown ; whilst on the North-American continent its 

 place is taken by A. sanctijohannls, differing in its more rufous and darker 

 plumage. 



In this country, if any direct habitat can be assigned to a species that 

 occurs but as a wanderer, the Rough-legged Buzzard Eagle appears to 

 prefer open country tracts of wild moorland and especially rabbit-warrens, 

 and low-lying districts devoid of timber marshy places abounding with 

 wild fowl and the smaller mammals which compose its food. In its 

 general habits it more closely resembles the smaller Eagles than the Buzzards. 

 Although a sluggish-looking bird, it is by no means slow on the wing, is 

 capable of much rapid graceful movement, and may sometimes be seen 

 gliding along, eagle-like, with outspread wings and tail, surveying the 

 ground below. Like the Eagles, too, the present species seems not to have 

 that love for wooded districts and forests which is so marked a trait in the 

 character of the Common Buzzard, but resorts to wilder districts amongst 

 the mountains. In the breeding-season the Rough-legged Buzzard Eagle 

 ofttimes betrays the site of its nest by its plaintive wailing cry, something 

 like the mewing of a cat, and which is much louder than the note of the 

 Common Buzzard. 



A diurnal bird, its food is obtained in the daytime, sometimes just in 

 the evening's dusk, and its hunting-grounds are for the most part the 

 open tracts of country. Here it leisurely sails, at a moderate height, 

 ready to pounce down upon the usually small and insignificant creatures 

 that form its food, which is composed of small mammals of various kinds, 

 such as field-mice, lemmings, and moles, frogs, lizards, and also young 

 rabbits and hares. When pressed by hunger it will often feed on 

 carrion, like the Eagles ; but it does not appear to prey much on birds, 

 unless when it discovers them wounded and comparatively helpless. This 

 bird has been known to follow the sportsman, and actually seize dead 

 birds, an interesting note respecting this being found in Stevenson's 

 'Birds of Norfolk' (i. p. 31). 



I have never taken the nest of the Rough-legged Buzzard Eagle; but 

 my friend Harvie-Browu has lent me the journal of his visit to the Fille 

 Fjeld iu South Norway, in company with the late Mr. E. R. Alston. 

 In the wild rocky valleys of this district, three to four thousand feet 

 above the level of the sea, this interesting bird breeds in considerable 

 numbers, and many nests were taken during the month of June. In 1871 

 fourteen breeding-places were known in this locality, all of them in the 

 clefts of mor^or less inaccessible rocks. In every case a rope was neces- 

 sary to secure the eggs ; but the inhabitants pointed out many old breeding- 

 places in easily accessible cliffs, leading to the supposition that the 



VOL. i. i 



