246 



THE NATURALIST, 



111 this bird tlie foreliead, croAvn, and occiput are a very pale buff, and 

 yellowish white, each feather streaked with gre^dsh umber in the centre. 

 The throat and chin white, more faintly marked with umber, the lore white, 

 with the feathers compact and downy ; through which spring black radiating 

 bi'istles. The bill, curved rather more than the fourth of a circle, is blue 

 black, lighter at the base with its soft margins yellow ; cere, gamboge yellow, 

 irides of the same colour, the fore-neck and upper part of the breast very 

 light cinnamon and cream, with longitudinal marks of dark umber on each 

 feather. The sides and middle of the breast umber brown, the same colour 

 a little more mottled and a shade lighter extending to the abdomen. Tibia 

 and tarsi reddish ochre spotted with umber. Tarsi feathered their whole 

 length, toes orange yellow, claws black, vent and under and upper tail coverts 

 white, the latter streaked with three or four brown spots. The whole of the 

 upper plumage greyish umber, each feather variegated on its outer edge, 

 with cream and russet red, these light tints being most conspicuous on the 

 scapulars; the middle and posterior part of the back more uniform in colour,, 

 the anterior part of the back and nape of the neck gradually running into 

 the light colour of the head. The larger wing coverts and secondaries brown, 

 primary quills white at their base, gradually blending into a grey, and from 

 that to a brown, eventually becoming very dark at the tips ; outer edge of 

 the wing white. The tail, which is composed of twelve feathers, is white for 

 nearly two-thirds of its length from the base, the remainder clouded brown, 

 with the terminal edge dirty vdiite. Length twenty-one and a half inches, 

 expanse of wings fifty-one inches, wing from flexure joint seventeen inches, 

 tail nine inches, tarsus three inches, wings when folded a little shorter than 

 tail, the third and fourth quills, which are nearly of equal length, the longest, 

 the first four abruptly narrowed four and a half inches from their tips. ISTeck 

 short but strong, skull large, rounded at base, flattened above, supra-ocular 

 ridge prominent. Body full and robust anteriorly, somewhat compressed 

 along the ribs ; oesophagus six inches long, swelling into an expansile sack, a 

 little anterior to the proventriculus, stomach rather oblong than round, 

 1 J inches long, windpipe narrow, liver, heart and lungs moderately large ; 

 weight thirty-one and a quarter ounces. 



The rough legged buzzard has never been known to breed in Great 

 Britain; it chooses for that purpose the northern parts of Europe and America, 

 and is only an occasional visitor to our shores, I^rorthumberland claiming its 

 quota of visitors. Mr. Selby describes the habits of two individuals which 



