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Additional Notes on Birds in the neighbourhood of Paxton. 

 By George Muirhead. 



Bough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus). — Major Campbell 

 Benton, of Mordington, has kindly informed me that his game- 

 keeper saw a Bough-legged Buzzard on Lamberton Moor, during 

 the severe snowstorm in the month of December last. The bird 

 was sitting on a thorn tree, and allowed the keeper to approach 

 within 60 or 70 yards of it before it flew away. The keeper ob- 

 served that it had a good deal of yellowish white about the 

 plumage. Mr Mein, Lamberton, has been good enough to give 

 me some further information regarding the bird. It frequented 

 Lamberton Moor for about a fortnight after the snow-storm came 

 on in December, and it sometimes came to the stackyard at 

 Lamberton Shiels and sat on the stacks, evidently for the pur- 

 pose of catching mice or rats. It was frequently seen about 

 Mordington, and went by the name of " The Eagle," as it looked 

 very large when on the wing. It used, sometimes, to be seen fre- 

 quenting the "Lang Belt" Plantation, on Mordington Mains 

 Farm. 



Pied Flycatcher {Muscicapa atricapilla). — A male Pied Fly- 

 catcher was observed here near the Avenue Bridge, on 12th May, 

 1877. I find, on referring to my previous notes, that I observed 

 one at Finchy, about the second week of May, 1872. It is a very 

 rare visitor to Paxton. 



Missel Thrush (Turdus viscivorus). — During the long continu- 

 ance of the recent unusually severe weather in December and 

 January, several Missel Thrushes, which are generally very wild 

 and shy, came, along with Common Thrushes, Bed Wings, Field- 

 fares, Blackbirds, House Sparrows, Hedge Sparrows, Bedbreasts, 

 and Titmice of several kinds, to a window-sill in Paxton House, 

 and fed eagerly on crumbs of bread and meat, which were put 

 out for them by the ladies every morning. The Missel Thrushes, 

 Bedwings, and Fieldfares were so tamed by the severity of the 

 weather that they fed while people stood inside the window look- 

 ing at them. 



Chiee-chape {Sylvia Mppolais). — My attention was attracted 

 while I was on my way from the garden r here, to my cottage, on 

 22nd May last, about noon, by the peculiar note of a small bird, 

 proceeding from the top of a high elm tree, near the Avenue 



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