THE ROUGH-LECGED BUZZARD. 107 
mountains and wastes, over which it roams with. a more powerful flight than that 
of the other species, preying upon hares, rabbits, mice, lemmings, moles, frogs, 
lizards, etc. It glides along ‘“ Eagle-like, with out-spread wings and tail, surveying 
the ground below. When pressed by hunger it will often feed on carrion, like 
the Eagles; but it does not appear to prey much on birds, unless it discovers 
them wounded and comparatively helpless.” It breeds in high cliffs, in places 
that are usually inaccessible, the female sitting very close, and being hard to 
dislodge from the nest; this is a large structure built up of branches of birch or 
juniper, and lined with grass; sometimes the nest is placed in a tree. The eggs 
are slightly larger than those of the Common Buzzard, and are laid in May; they 
are occasionally very handsomely marked with blotches of rich red, but the more 
usual type is a dull white all over with but few markings. Many varieties occur 
as is the rule with the eggs of all the Buzzard family; the clutch is usually three 
in number, the eggs measuring from 2°25 to 2'1 inches, by from 1°8 to 1°65 
inches. 
When on wing the Rough-legged Buzzard can be easily recognized by the 
white on the tail. In this species the usual rule for the colouring of the plumage 
in the Falconitde—that the young birds are dark and the adults much lighter in 
colour—is reversed, as the adults are dark, and the immature birds much lighter. 
However, another canon as to plumage is maintained, for the young birds have 
the longitudinal dark markings, instead of trausverse, on their lower parts, which 
characterize the young of the Accipitres. 
The adult male has the head creamy white, striated with dark brown and 
rufous; upper parts very dark brown, blotched and barred with dull white and 
rufous; basal two-thirds of the tail white, remainder greyish, tinged with rufous; 
a very broad subterminal dark band, and three or four other dark broad bands; 
buffish white at the tip; lower parts creamy white, spotted and barred with brown 
and rufous; a band of white across the lower breast, sparingly barred with brown; 
flanks boldly barred with blackish; thighs rufous, broadly barred with brown; 
bill blackish horn, bluish at the base; irides brown; feet and cere yellow. The 
sexes differ only in size, the female being largest. Length—male, 23 inches; 
female, 26 inches. Younger birds have their heads almost pure creamy white, 
with more white on the throat and chest; their upper parts are dark brown, less 
margined with white than in adults; under parts with longitudinal streaks of 
brown; and a broad band of uniform dark brown on the abdomen. 
The Rough-legged Buzzard is also subject to considerable variations in 
plumage; melanisms, however, appear to be rare. In the winter of 1876, when a 
large flight of these Buzzards visited this country, a very dark bird was trapped 
