down in the forest. It is nearly as large as that of the common species, and presents one peculiarity which 
I never observed in that of any other Buzzard ; there are always some green birch-branches interwoven 
with the sticks with which it is formed. The bird incubates the latest of the whole tribe. We never find 
a nest with eggs until June, and in 1863 1 obtained one as late as the 14th of August. The eggs vary 
much in colour, and are certainly finer and deeper-coloured than those of any other Buzzard. I have 
occasionally seen Rough-legged Buzzards beating over the lower meadows after the young ducks, at the 
end of July; but I never saw one in the forest. The fells appear to be their peculiar summer home, for 
they breed in no other part of Sweden ; and on the 18th of August (the last day I was there) I counted 
seventeen on the wing soaring very high ; and that they were common here may be gleaned from the fact 
that more than fifty nests were destroyed in this district in the spring of 1862. The habits, flight, and 
appearance of the Rough-legged are much like those of the Common Buzzard ; but it may always be distin- 
guished from that species, 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 it 
frequents. I do not think this bird is so sluggish in its habits as its ally ; and although lemmings and field- 
mice doubtless form the j)rinclpal part of its food, I am certain that it destroys many Ptarmigan, for I have 
seen the ground beneath the nest thickly strewed with the feathers of that bird.” 
Some very interesting remarks on the range of this sj)ecies towards the north, on its eggs, and the pains 
taken by the late Mr. Wolley to secure their accurate identification, will he found in Mr. Alfred Newton’s 
‘ Ootheca Wolleyana hut, as they ai-e too lengthy for insertion here, I shall content myself with stating 
that we learn from them that the Rough-legged Buzzard is the only species which breeds in the far north, 
that it is one of the commonest birds of prey in Lapland ; and so enormous is the extent of the district 
from which Mr. Wolley’s specimens were collected, that no sensible diminution was thereby made in their 
numbers. “I am not acquainted,” says Mr. Newton, “with any British author who has described the 
changes of plumage in the Rough-legged Buzzard correctly, or who has figured an adult bird. This can 
be easily explained by the fact that the generality of examples obtained in this country are young birds in 
their first dress ; an examination, however, of Mr. Wolley’s spoils convinced me that in the adults of this 
species, as in so many other Accipitres, the markings are disposed transversely instead of longitudinally, — in 
other words, that the young are striped, and the old are barred.” Mr. Wolley “ climbed up to a nest wliich 
was in a Scotch fir of no great size. There were in it two young ones — one which was not many days 
hatched, the other much larger. They were white, and just like young eaglets. The nest was small, made 
of old sticks, with two or three sprigs of Scotch fir, and a little of the black hair-like lichen which hangs 
so abundantly from the trees.” Mr. Hewltson Informs us that some eggs are nearly white, while others are 
of a cream-colour, largely blotched with reddish brown. They differ so little from those of the Common 
Buzzard that no dependence can be placed upon the identity of any that have not been obtained by a careful 
collector ; hence the great value of Mr. Wolley’s researches. 
The under surface of the Rough-legged Buzzard is always deeply stained with buff in the young birds, the 
thighs and tarsi of which are marked with longitudinal arrowhead-shaped spots, while in the adults both 
the thighs and the tarsi are distinctly and alternately barred across with dark brown and huffy white. In 
some specimens the throat, chest, and flanks have a large amount of purplish brown, while in others these 
parts are interspersed with greyish buff. The plumage is more soft and owl-like than in the Common 
Buzzard. The under surface of the basal portion of the wing exhibits a great amount of white, showing very 
conspicuously when the bird is in the air. The tail has much more white at the base, and the bars, so nume- 
rous in the Common Buzzard, form a very inconspicuous feature in the present bird ; these bars, in fact, and 
the broad band of purplish black near the tip are almost obsolete in the young birds, whose tails are almost 
uniform huffy brown. The sexes are very similar at all periods of life ; but the female is the larger bird of 
the two. 
The figure represents a very dark and somewhat unusually-coloured specimen, which I received from 
Mr. Wheelwright, about two-thirds of the natural size. 
