148 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



this very bird. In the winter of 1S75 quite a flight of Eough-legged 

 Buzzards visited this county, and two were obtained ou the skirts of 

 Exmoor. About Christmas in that year a very dark example was trapped 

 in Xorth Devon, which is in our possession. At first we regarded it as 

 an example of the Xorni-Araerican subspecies, Archihuieo sancti -jolHinnis, 

 which is often obtained in an almost black plumage ; but the late Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, who examined the bird, informed us that it was a remarkably 

 fine melanism of the European Archihuieo lar/ojyus, and was much interested 

 in it, subsequently describing it in the ' Ibis ' (see ' Ibis ' for 1S7G, p. 374). 

 According to this excelleut axithority, melanistic varieties of the Rough- 

 legged Buzzard are extremely rare, and, this being the case, we have 

 selected this bird for illustration, especially as Mr. Gurney wrote to us, 

 "Your Buzzard is a splendid si)ecimcn, and I believe very nearly, if not 

 quite, uniejue." As in other dark examples of the Buzzard, the almost 

 lilack featliers are " strongly tinged with purplish reflections," to quote 

 from Mr. J. H. Gurney's description. 



Eoush-legged Buzzards were again numerous in England in the winter 

 of 1S70-77, and two were recorded from Devonshire, one in the north, and 

 the other in the south of the county. Lord Lilford believes that the 

 abundance or scarcity of the Eough-legged Buzzard in the West of Europe 

 depends entirely upon the Lemmings. This present year (1S91) has been 

 a great season for these little animals in Scandinavia, and during the 

 autumn Lord Lilford received two live Eough-legged Buzzards from 

 Holland ; another was offered to him. which had been caught alive in his 

 own county (^'orthauts), and he had heard of the occurrence of several in 

 the Eastern Counties, as well as of one in his own immediate neighbour- 

 hood (Lord L., in litl.. November 26th, 1S91). 



There was a specimen of this Buzzard at Pincomhe's, and another, shot in November 

 ]8.3liatEgg Bucklaud, near Plymouth, was in Drew's collection (E. M., IMag. Nat. 

 Hist. 18.37, p. llo; and Rowe's Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 232). Two are said to have 

 been obtained on Dartmoor, one of them about 1848. Two were obtained on Exmoor, 

 in October or November, 187."); and anotlier in the winter of 187<)-77 (M. A. M., Zo(iL 

 1875, p. 4720; 1871;, pp. 4814, 4870: 1877, p. 104 : and J. H. G., Zool. 1870, p. 4'JOl). 

 One was shot, and anotlier seen, at Ditsworthy warren. Dartmoor, January 31, 1877 

 (J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 1(>3). A female trapped on Dartmoor, nearLustleigh, ilarch 28, 

 1883, is in the possession of ^Ir. W. Vicarv, of Newton Abbot (' Field' for April 2Sth, 

 1883; Trans. Devon. Assoc. 18S4, p. 71). " 



A few examples of this Buzzard have been procured in Somerset and Dor.set, but it 

 is apparently extremely rare in Cornwall, which is beyond the limit of its western 

 range. 



THE EAGLES. 



However great our ambition might be to claim the larger 

 birds of prey as residents in Devonshire in by-gone years, 

 if not in the present, we are compelled to own that no- 



