Rough-legged Buzzard. 87 



specimen which had come under his notice ; but I have notes of 

 another killed near Wroughton ; one caught at Overton in 1866 ; 

 one, as I learn from Mr. Grant, killed at Erlestoke in January, 

 1882; which measured 4 feet 5 inches in breadth of extended 

 wings, 21 inches in length, and weighed 2| pounds; and several 

 of these ' feather-legged buzzards,' as the keepers aptly described 

 them, were shot at Fon thill some years since. The Rev. A. P. 

 Moires reports that in December, 1876, five of this species were 

 seen in a large wood at Fonthill, four of which were trapped ; 

 and he adds that Mr. Rawlence possesses a specimen in his 

 collection which was killed on the Longleat estate, near 

 Warminster. Mr. Ernest Baker, of Mere, in November, 1876, 

 fell in with it while shooting, and had good opportunities 

 of watching it. though it was too wary to come quite within 

 gunshot. Its heavy flight proclaimed it at once to his practised 

 eye as a Buzzard, and when it afterwards pitched on the downs 

 he was able to examine it at leisure, when its tail, apparently 

 white, and the very light under-parts, caught his attention. It 

 was subsequently seen near the same spot by several persons, 

 one of whom came close upon it while engaged in devouring 

 a rabbit. On January 1st, 1880, one was killed on the estate of 

 Sir T. Fraser Grove, at Feme, near Salisbury, as recorded in the 

 Zoologist for that year, page 143. On January 2nd, 1881, a very- 

 fine specimen was obtained on Gorton Down, close to Boyton, as 

 I was informed by the Rev. G. Powell ; and Mr. Rawlence tells 

 me that in 1882 a pair of these birds hatched out five young 

 ones near Tisbury, all of which he believes were killed, and some 

 of them stuffed and preserved in the neighbourhood; one of 

 which (an adult bird, and a very fine specimen) is in the posses- 

 sion of Mr. J. R. Read, of Berwick Farm. This evidence of the 

 breeding of this species in Wilts is the more valuable, because it 

 is stated by Professor Newton that nearly all the Rough-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 longi- 

 tudinal markings of the lower parts.* 



Fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds/ vol. i., p. 118. 



