Dr Smith's Ornithological Notes. 67 



Buzzard. This autumn, numerous specimens have been 

 taken in the eastern districts of Scotland. Through the 

 kindness of Mr Sanderson, bird-stuffer, who has also sent the 

 Honey Buzzard, I am able to exhibit a fine specimen of a 

 male bird, shot at Coldingham on the 29th October, the 

 property of Mr Mason ; and also an old female, wliicli is always 

 slightly larger than the male, the property of the Earl of 

 Strathmore, shot near Glammis Castle on the 1st November. 

 The male bird is rather lighter in colour than the female, 

 the white at the root of the tail being brighter in plumage than 

 in the female ; each of course have the dark-brown abdomen. 



Mr Small, bird-stuffer, has kindly sent, at my request, 

 several specimens of the Eough-legged Buzzard — a fine male 

 killed near Largo, on the 27tli October ; a female got near 

 Selkirk, also on the 27th October; a female taken near 

 Haddington, on the 8th November, the property of Lord 

 Walden, and another, a male also, killed on the 9th Novem- 

 ber, near Lockerbie. Three specimens of tlie Eough-legged 

 Buzzard were also taken about the same time, in the 

 Pentland range of hills, and other two were stated to have 

 been seen in the same district, but were not captured. 



Mr D. Carfrae has sent a Eough-legged Buzzard, shot 

 about the 29th October, by Mr Cochrane, gamekeeper at Lud- 

 gate, near Stow, Edinburghshire. I am sorry to say many of 

 these birds were taken in traps baited with rabbits. 



We have thus had a most unusual abundance of this bird 

 this season, due, I believe, to the prevalence of easterly gales 

 at the time of their southerly migration on the Continent, 

 carrying the birds over to our eastern shores. 



Mr M. Sanderson sends for comparison, a fine specimen of 

 the Buteo vulgaris, the Common Buzzard, killed in the island 

 of Mull, in the middle of October, and Mr M. S. Keddie has, 

 at my request, sent the bones of the sternum of each of 

 these three different Buzzards, which are interesting for com- 

 parison, and show the differences between the species. 



3. Faico ijeregrinus — Peregrine Falcon. — Mr Small has 

 also sent a very fine specimen of this beautiful bird, a female, 

 recently killed near Inveraray. 



4. Otus Irachyotus — Short-eared Owl. — From a similar cause, 



