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On some of the Birds of Lauderdale. By Andrew Kelly. 



Falco peregrinus. — Mr Walter Simson says that forty years 

 since, a docker and birds were picking some porridge, which 

 had been given them before the door of Longcroft farm house, 

 in Lauderdale, when a Hunting Hawk swooped down the glen, 

 and alighted about a yard distant from them. The chickens 

 took to night, but the hen, which had before this fought many a 

 hard battle with cat and dog, stood firm in defence, and struck 

 the hawk a blow with such force, that it died almost instantan- 

 eously. The hen ever afterward, in memory of her feat, received 

 the name of the " Eagle killer." In January, 1877, a Peregrine 

 came sweeping over the Lammermoors towards Blythe edge, 

 just as Mr Scott was firing amongst a covey of red grouse. It 

 darted on one of the falling birds, but seeing it lifeless on the 

 ground, without receiving the death-blow from itself, it became 

 dubious, and hurried off before a shot could be fired to arrest it. 

 On another occasion, in Lauderdale, in 1870, while a small party 

 of ducks was moving about in a pond, a Peregrine dashed 

 amongst them, and struck one so forcibly with its talons, that 

 both captor and victim went out of sight in the water. The 

 hawk made its appearance first, gasping and plunging deep in 

 the water ; and it was only by making one or two strenuous 

 efforts, that it got to the side, more dead than alive. 



Ealco Tinnunctjlus. — Never plentiful. I was rather surprised 

 to see one trapped at a dead rabbit. 



Buteo vulgaris. — Two specimens of the Buzzard occurred in 

 Lauderdale during the winter and spring of 1876. One was seen 

 some weeks in the district before it could be trapped or shot. 

 The other, evidently its mate, was taken late in the spring, at 

 eggs. This was an elegant bird, with plumage of the very 

 darkest brown ; its head and neck purple. In January, 1877, 

 Thomas Biddell saw another Buzzard on Blythe edge. 



Buteo Lagoptjs. — Mr Scott trapped a male specimen of the 

 Rough-legged Buzzard, Feb. 13th, 1877. He first noticed it in 

 the Park field near Edgarhope, while it was eating a rabbit. It 

 was attended by two Peregrines, which kept in the background. 

 The Buzzard was the first aware of Mr Scott's intrusion, and 

 moved off to the shelter of an adjacent wood ; and the falcons 

 withdrew in a different direction to wilder retreats. To secure 



