BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 15 



New Ground, in Guernsey, about Christmas, 1870, 

 and I found one at the bird-stuffer and carpenter's 

 shop at Alderney, which had been shot by his 

 friend who shot the Greenland Falcon, but I could 

 get no information about the date except that it was 

 late autumn or winter, and about two years ago. 

 These are the only Channel Island specimens of 

 which I have been able to glean any intelligence. 

 Probably, however, it has occurred at other times 

 and been overlooked. As it may have occasionally 

 been mistaken for the more common Common 

 Buzzard, I may say that it is always to be dis- 

 tinguished from that bird by the feathered tarsus. 

 On the wing, perhaps, when flying overhead, the 

 most readily observed distinction is the dark band 

 on the lower part of the breast. I have, however, 

 seen a very dark variety of the Rough -legged Buz- 

 zard, in which nearly the whole of the plumage 

 was a uniform dark chocolate-brown, and con- 

 sequently the dark band on the breast could not be 

 seen even when one had the bird in one's hand, and 

 had it not been for the feathered tarsus this bird 

 might easily have been mistaken for a very dark 

 variety of the Common Buzzard, and when on the 

 wing it would have been impossible to identify it. 

 Indeed, though it was immediately distinguishable 

 from the Common Buzzard by its feathered legs, 

 there was some little difficulty about identifying it, 

 even when handling it as a skin. 



