4 TfiE ZOOLOGIST. 



EouGH-LEGGED BuzzARD. — In the Eastern Counties this bird, 

 during autumn, is usually more common than Butco vulgaris — at 

 least it has proved to be so during the last eight or nine years. 

 The majority of Eough-legged Buzzards that occur in Norfolk 

 and Suffolk are immature birds in the first year's j)lumage. The 

 only example seen in 1881 (and I heard of but one other) proved 

 to be a female in the second year's plumage. It was killed on 

 November 11th on the coast at Sherriugham, and was sent me 

 the following day. The broad band crossing its abdomen was of 

 a very dark umber, several shades darker than in a bird of the 

 first year's plumage ; the bars crossing the thigh-feathers also 

 were more numerous and of the same shade of colour. Although 

 this bird was in good plight, it had no food in the stomach. The 

 usual prey of this species consists of rabbits and rats, and occa- 

 sionally the Water Vole. The average weight is about ^^ lb. 



Honey Buzzard. — Several specimens were obtained along the 

 eastern coast during September and October, 1881, the majority 

 of examples, so far as I observed, being in the immature plumage 

 of the first year. The first individual in this dress, a male, 

 came to me on September 26th from Burgh, near Yarmouth ; and 

 several other young birds were also obtained in the same district, 

 two being caught alive in traps placed for the purpose in the 

 vicinity of wasps' nests, the birds having been previously 

 observed scratching up the earth there. Wasps' and bees' nests 

 are seemingly a great attraction to this species, whose food 

 consists not only of the honey, but the comb-grubs, and the bees 

 and wasps themselves, the grubs being most numerous in the 

 stomachs examined. On dissecting the first-named example I 

 noticed the stomach was small and apparently contracted : it 

 contained only some thick sticky greenish matter. The weight 

 of this bird was 1 lb. 12J oz. ; the measurements were, total 

 length, 22|- in. ; extended wings, to tip of each, 48j in. ; wing 

 from carpus, 15| in. A specimen in the second year's plumage 

 was sent me a few days later, namely, on October 3rd, from 

 Yarmouth. This was a fine female bird; the feathers of the 

 head and nape were brown and white intermixed, giving 

 those parts a mottled ai^iiearance : the broad transverse bars of 

 its breast and flank feathers also showed very conspicuously, 

 being of a deep brown, which contrasted well with the remaining 

 portion of the plumage, which was white ; bill and claws black ; 



