DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 
ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD (1 nat. size). 
Rough-Legged Although the rough-legged buzzards, of which there are but 
Buzzards, very few species, differ from the true buzzards merely in having the 
metatarsus feathered right down to the toes, it is found convenient to distinguish 
them by a separate generic name. Their range includes Central and Northern 
Europe, Northern Asia, and the whole of North America; the European species 
sometimes straggling as far as South Africa. The European rough-legged buzzard 
(Archibuteo lagopus )—the species represented in our illustration—is a bird some¬ 
what larger than the common buzzard, and not exhibiting quite as much individual 
those of the red kite. In America Captain Bendire relates that Swainson’s buzzard 
has been observed nesting in harmonious association with other birds, especially 
with Arkansas kingbirds and shrikes; the nests of these birds being sometimes 
only a few inches below those of the buzzards. Fossilised remains of the common 
buzzard have been found in caverns in Devonshire and Westmoreland; the 
metatarsus figured on p. 140 coming from the latter county. 
