ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 



439 



of a larger size ; plumage the same. Being half domesticated, it fre- 

 quently returns to its natural wild habits, where it breeds with the wild 

 species. It is frequently killed in our rivers and decoys. 



ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD {Buteo lagopus, Fleming.) 



* Falco Lagopus, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 260.— Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 19. 33.— Meyer, 

 Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 37. — Buteo Lagopus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 54. — Vigors, 

 Zool. Jour. 2. p. 340. — Falco Sclavonicus, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 26. 54. — Buse 

 Pattue, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 65. — Buse Gantee, Vail. Ois. d'Afr. 1. pi. 18. 

 — Rauchfussiger Busard, Bork. Deut. Orn. Heft, female. — Rough-legged Fal- 

 con, Lath. Syn. 1. p. 75.— Shaw's Zool. 7. p. 145. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — lb. Supp. 

 — Bewick's Br. Birds, Supp. — Dusky Falcon, Venn. Arct. Zool. — Selby, p. 20. 

 pi. 7.* 



This species measures upwards of two feet in length ; the wings are 

 long, and reach near to the end of the tail when closed ; the bill is 

 dusky ; cere and irides yellow ; the head, neck, and breast, yellowish 

 white, streaked with brown ; those on the breast large ; the lower part 

 of the sides, above the thighs, and belly, except a line down the middle, 

 dusky brown ; the scapulars and wing coverts blotched with dusky 

 brown, the former mixed with yellowish white, the latter inclining to 

 ferruginous ; the quill-feathers white at the base, dusky black at the 

 ends ; the outer webs dashed with cinereous ; shafts white ; the tail is 

 brown one-third from the end, across which are two faint bars of dusky 

 black ; the rest white, with a few spots across the upper part, resem- 

 bling a broken bar, of brown ; the tip white ; upper tail coverts white, 

 streaked with brown ; the legs are covered with pale, dull, yellow fea- 

 thers, down to the feet, spotted with brown ; thighs the same ; feet 

 yellow ; claws black. 



This bird appears to be subject to some variety. That described by 

 Mr. Pennant, shot near London, had the extreme half of the tail 

 brown, tipped with dirty white. 



Another, shot in Suffolk, had the tail of a cream-coloured white ; 

 near the tip is a brown bar above an inch in breadth ; above that ano- 

 ther, half an inch broad ; and above these, each feather had a spot upon 

 it in the middle, resembling, when spread, a third bar ; the two outer 

 feathers on each side are marked with a few irregular spots of brown 

 on the outer webs, almost the whole of their length. This bird was 

 less than the former, measuring only one foot ten inches. 



The Rough-legged Buzzard is a native of the more northern parts, 

 and is rarely met with in England. That from which the first descrip- 

 tion is taken, was picked up dead on the coast of Kent in the winter of 

 1792, presented to us by Dr. Latham, and is now in our museum. 



*" The flight of these birds," says Selby, "is smooth, but slow, and 

 not unlike that of the buzzard ; and they seldom continue any length 



