118 FALCON1M. 



to be somewhat less scarce, but MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy- 

 Lapommeraye term it one of the rarest species of the south of 

 France. It does not seem to cross the Mediterranean, though 

 it has occurred in Sardinia, and, according to Mr. Charles 

 Wright, it is stated that two examples have been recognized 

 at Malta. It has been included by several Spanish naturalists 

 as a bird of their country, but there can be little doubt that 

 the little Booted Eagle, Aquila pennata, has been the species 

 they mistook for it, and the same explanation is probably to 

 be given of the statements of Le Vaillant and Sir Andrew 

 Smith as to its occurrence at the Cape of Good Hope. 



In northern Germany, especially towards the east, it is a 

 regular winter visitant, and Dr. Borggreve remarks that it 

 frequents the open country in preference to the forests. It 

 breeds in Pomerania, but whether it does so further to the 

 southward seems uncertain. Dr. Kjaerbolling quotes au- 

 thority for a nest being found in Jutland, but its character 

 in Denmark generally is that of a bird of passage. In 

 Holland and Belgium, as with us, it appears to pass the 

 winter. Nearly all the Hough-legged Buzzards which occur 

 in the British Islands are in immature plumage, which in 

 this species, as in so many of the true Falcons, differs from 

 that of the adult by the transverse instead of longitudinal 

 markings of the lower parts. Indeed, mature examples are 

 of a very rare occurrence in this country. Mr. Stevenson 

 says in his ' Birds of Norfolk ' that he has only known of 

 four being killed in that and the adjoining county, one of 

 which was trapped in July, 1848, but he has kindly for- 

 warded information of a fifth obtained in the spring of the 

 present year (1871). By many ornithologists the change 

 which this species undergoes in its progress to maturity 

 has been erroneously described or not understood at all. 

 Mr. Gurney is of opinion that the fully adult dress is not 

 assumed until the third year. The old bird has been but 

 seldom represented, there is however a very characteristic 

 figure of it in Naumann's ' Vogel Deutschlands ' (pi. xxxiv.) 

 and the beautiful plate in Mr. Gould's ' Birds of Great 

 Britain ' leaves little to be desired, while an excellent 



