473 



whiter, the head, neck, and breast being white with dark striations, the feathers on the upper parts 

 with very broad white margins, the underparts very white, and the band on the abdomen very narrow, 

 the thighs and tarsi yellowish white with small blotchy stripes. No. 4, from Silesia, has the upper 

 parts darker than in the young bird (no. 1) , but intermixed with ferruginous ; the throat and breast 

 are very dark and heavily blotched (not striped) with blackish brown ; the band on the abdomen is very 

 broad and clearly defined ; but the thighs and tarsi are very distinctly barred, though the basal portion 

 of the tail is quite plain white ; the terminal portion of the tail is tinged with rufous, the extreme tip 

 being, however, nearly pure white. Tbe next in succession (no. 5) is a female from Palsterbo in 

 Sweden, which is adult, but not old. It has the band on the breast less clearly defined than in no. 4, 

 but is rather more rufous, and is not quite so dark in general coloration. The next in succession is, I 

 take it, the very old bird above described, which makes no. 6 in the series. The variations in size in 

 the females is as follows — wing 165-180 inches, tail 95-100, tarsus 2"9-3 - l ; and the old male I 

 possess measures — wing 16"2 inches, tail 9 - 5, tarsus 2 - 95. 



Essentially a northern species, the Rough-legged Buzzard inhabits during the summer season 

 the northern portions of Europe and Asia, migrating down into Central and even occasionally 

 Southern Asia and Europe during the winter. In North America it is replaced by an allied 

 species (Archibuteo sancti-johannis), which, in adult plumage, is a much darker bird, being not 

 unfrequently almost black. 



With us in Great Britain the present species is chiefly known as a somewhat rare straggler, 

 being met with, however, annually in the autumn or winter, almost always in immature plumage ; 

 for I have never seen a British-killed example in the plumage of the old bird. It has been killed 

 in almost every county in England, and has even been known to breed with us. Mr. A. G. More 

 gives (Ibis, 1865, p. 12) the following particulars communicated to him by Mr. Alwin S. Bell, of 

 Scarborough, viz. : — " Mr. John Smith, who was gamekeeper for twenty years on the estate of 

 Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, remembers the Bough-legged Buzzards perfectly well: there was no 

 mistake as to the species, as they were feathered right down to the toe-ends. They used to 

 breed year after year, on the ground, amongst the heather, in the moor dells near Ash-Hay Gill, 

 Whisperdale, about three miles from Hackness. One pair only bred every year during most of 

 the time that Mr. Smith was keeper (twenty-four years ago). They were not seen except in the 

 breeding-season." 



In the southern counties it appears to occur less frequently than on the east coast. Mr. J. C. 

 Mansel-Pleydell says that it is "a rare bird in Dorsetshire; one was shot about 1862 in the 

 neighbourhood of Bempston, where it is now preserved. Mr. Hart, of Christchurch, stuffed a 

 Dorsetshire specimen in the year 1857. Two have passed through the hands of Mr. Bolls, of 

 Weymouth, one of which was shot at Creech Grange. The late Mr. C. Bartlett has two in his 

 collection which were shot in the neighbourhood of Blanford ; and the Bev. O. P. Cambridge 

 saw one at Bloxworth in the year 1862." Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that it only occasionally 

 visits Somersetshire, and is never very common. On the east coast it appears to be more 

 frequently met with than in the southern and western counties. Mr. Stevenson writes (B. of 

 Norf. i. p. 30) as follows : — " These Buzzards vary considerably in numbers in different seasons, 

 being in some years very scarce, and in others visiting us in great quantities, as was particularly 

 the case in the winter of 1839-40, when, according to Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, 'during the 

 three months of November, December, and January no less than forty-seven specimens were 



3u2 



