THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD EAGLE. 115 



accounted for by the nature of the country, this part of Lapland being 

 on the borderland between the forest and the tundra. There are no 

 cliffs ; but the country is described as a wild tract of undulating ground, 

 abounding with forest, river, lake, and swamp. 



The eggs of this bird are subject to considerable variation in colour 

 and size, some specimens being poorly marked, whilst others are very 

 richly blotched with dark red, or clouded and mottled with pale brown. 

 In some eggs the colouring is confined to a few large rich blotches of red ; 

 others are evenly spotted with colour, just as intense, over the entire 

 surface. A more rare variety is delicately streaked and pencilled with a 

 few irregular dashes of pale brown, something similar to a Kite's. Other 

 varieties are seen in which all the colouring is distributed in pale purplish 

 shell-markings, with, perhaps, a few streaks of rich brown. The hand- 

 somest type of egg is the clouded variety. They vary from 2*25 to 2'1 

 inch in length, and from 1*8 to 1'65 inch in breadth. 



The general colour of an adult bird is buffish white, variegated with 

 several shades of brown, most closely on the back and rump. The quills 

 have the basal half white, terminal half blackish brown ; a broad patch of 

 brown on the belly; basal two thirds of tail white, remainder brown, 

 narrowly tipped with buffish white. Legs feathered to the toes, fawn- 

 colour, streaked with brown. Bill blackish horn, bluish at the base; 

 irides brown; feet and cere yellow; claws black. The sexes only differ in 

 size, the female being slightly the largest. Immature birds may always 

 be distinguished from adults by having the brown markings on the lower 

 parts longitudinal instead of transverse. 



