26 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



webs alone are dusky, the base of the inner web 

 being white for nearly two-thirds of the length of the 

 feather; under wing-coverts and flanks white and 

 yellowish white, barred with brown; tail greyish 

 brown, barred with brown. 



The eggs of the Common Buzzard vary much in 

 colouring ; Hewitson says, according to the age of 

 the bird, those of the first year being nearly white. 

 The specimen I have before me is about the size of 

 a hen's egg; ground colour greenish white, much 

 blotched with two shades of rusty, one considerably 

 brighter than the other, the second so light that it 

 is scarcely to be distinguished from the ground 

 colour. 



ROUGHLEGGED BUZZARD, Buteo lagopus. The 

 Eoughlegged Buzzard is another very rare species 

 in our county, and indeed throughout England, 

 though on the Continent it appears to be as common 

 as, if not more so than, the species last described, 

 from which it may be immediately distinguished by 

 the feathered tarsus. 



I know of very few occurrences of this bird in 

 Somerset : the one in my own collection was shot at 

 Chargot Lodge, and purchased by me at the sale of 

 Sir John Lethbridge's birds at Sandhill, in the cata- 

 logue of which sale it figured under the name of an 

 Eagle. This bird has also been taken in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Burnham, but the specimen taken there 

 escaped, the gentleman who shot it having only 



