8442 



Birds, 



observed was early in May, and the first nest T obtained was on May 21st, with three 

 eggs ; and although I have obtained the nest with five, and once even with six eggs, I 

 observed that three was the most usual number, and most often sat on. The nest, a 

 coarse edifice of sticks, moss :md grass, loosely put together, was often on a fell-ridge, 

 often in a tree, but never down in the forest ; always on the sides of the fells, but 

 always below the snow-region. I have occasionally seen them beating over the lower 

 meadows in the end of July, after the young ducks, but I never by any chance saw a 

 roughlegged buzzard in the forests. The fells appear to be their peculiar summer 

 home (for they breed in no other part of Sweden) ; and on August 18th, the last day 

 that I was on the fells, I counted seventeen on the wing, soaring very high over one 

 fell tract ; and the reader may further fancy that they were very common here, from 

 the fact that more than fifty nests were destroyed in this district during the spring of 

 1862. In habits, flight and appearance, the roughlegged buzzard much resembles 

 its congener, the common buzzard, from which it may be always distinguished when 

 in the air by the white root of the tail. Its cry is a loud "ka haa," not unlike the 

 melancholy call of the common buzzard, and is in perfect harmony with the wild, 

 lonely fell-tracts which it frequents. The period of breeding must extend over a very 

 long space of time, for I observed downy young ones in a nest on August 6th. I do 

 not think this bird is so sluggish in its habits as the common buzzard ; and, although 

 doubtless lemming and fell mice form their principal food, I am certain that they 

 destroy many ptarmigan, for I have seen the ground surrounding the nest thickly 

 strewed with the feathers of the ptarmigan. — H. Wheelwright, in 1 The Field. 1 



The Roughlegged Buzzard (Falco lagopus), and Hen Harrier (Falco cyaneus) at 

 Ashburnham Park. — A noble specimen of the roughlegged buzzard, a female, was 

 trapped as above, on the 13th of January ; the hen harrier, a very beautiful-marked 

 ringtail, was also trapped by the same person, on the 17th of January ; they are now 

 in my possession. — Robert Kent ; St. Leonard' s-on-Sea, Sussex, February 8, 1863. 



Notes on the Hawk Owl (Strix funerea), and Tengmalm's Owl (Strix Tengmalmi) 

 as observed in Lapland. — The hawk owl was by far the commonest owl in this district, 

 and although, of course, like the rest of the tribe, the lemming forms its principal 

 food when they are " in season," I don't believe this bird migrates much, but remains 

 stationary in the same district throughout the year. It is true, however, that iu winter 

 we occasionally kill an odd example, both old birds and birds of the year, as far south 

 as Wermland, but I do not think, except as stray individuals, they migrate from their 

 native forests. The range of the hawk owl in the north is precisely that of the 

 Siberian jay — the lower fir-forests at the foot and by the sides of the fells. The hawk 

 owl is by no means shy, and in the breeding season is one of the boldest of all birds. 

 Seated on the top of a dead pjne, close to the nest where his mate is sitting, the old 

 male bird keeps a constant watch, and as soon as any one appears to be approaching the 

 nest, he raises his tail and head (just after the manner of the cuckoo), and uttering a shrill 

 cry, not unlike that of the kestrel hawk, down he comes full on the head of the intruder ; 

 dashing by with the speed of lightning, he returns to the charge again and again, till 

 he has either cleared the coast, or has paid the penalty of his rashness with his life. 

 My lad was really frightened at this bird, and always hated to go up to a nest; and 

 well he might, for on one occasion, when taking the eggs out of a dead pine, without 

 a branch to help him, holding on, as the sailors say, " by his eyelids," forty feet from 

 the ground, the old bird made a swoop down on his head, struck off his cap (through 

 the top of which a large slit was cut), and in a moment returned to the charge, tearing 



