BIRDS 185 



tion previously deemed impregnable, was deemed a feat of no 

 small prowess by the country folk. It was Isaac Colebeck, a 

 Gosforth man, who scaled the Pillar rock that year, and trium- 

 phantly destroyed three young Buzzards in their eyrie. 1 



But the Buzzard does not usually select such impregnable 

 nesting haunts as the Eaven or the Peregrine. There exists in 

 Westmorland a certain low face of rock, overgrown with parsley 

 fern and heather ; this the Buzzard occasionally uses as a breed- 

 ing station. It is so easy of access that even a child could reach 

 it without incurring any risks, yet the Buzzard has nested there 

 on two occasions within the last decade. 



ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



Archibuteo lagopus (GmeL). 



Although the large flights of Buteo lagopus, which occasionally 

 appear on their autumnal migration in Norfolk and other 

 counties bordering on the German Ocean, are quite unknown 

 within the confines of Lakeland, yet there can be no question that 

 we receive occasional visits from single individuals. I cannot 

 answer for a single specimen having been killed locally during 

 the last decade ; nor is this surprising, if we remember that Dr. 

 Heysham himself never met with Cumbrian specimens until 

 towards the close of his long career. Of those which he must 

 have examined (because their capture was recorded by his son), 

 the first was killed at Wreay, near Carlisle, in November 1824, 

 while another was obtained near Bewcastle in February 1829. 

 These were young birds, and so were two others which Blackett 

 Greenwell stuffed in 1839. They were shot near Alston, on 

 the 6th and 26th of November respectively. In recording that 

 a specimen of this bird had been shot near Bishop-Auckland, 

 the late Mr. Hancock took occasion to make the remark, that 

 ' About that time several specimens occurred on both sides of 

 the Tees and in Westmorland.' 2 



The lightest in colour of such local specimens as I have 

 examined, not very many, was killed on Shap about a dozen 



1 Carlisle Patriot, Sept. 7, 1827. 



2 Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham, p. 5. 



