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 bireh-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 I obtained one as late as the ie of August. The eggs vary
much in coltoure, 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
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they breed in no other part of Sweden; and on the 18th of August (the last day I was there) I counted
Peroece 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 ; bat it may aves. be cea
guished from that species, when in the air, by the white root of the tail. Its cry is aloud ‘ 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 principal part of its food, Iam certain that it destroys many Ptarmigan, for I have
seen the ground beneath the nest thickly strewed with the feathers of that bird.”

Some neat interesting remarks on the range of this species towards the north, on its eggs, and the pains
taken by the late Mr. Wolley to secure their accurate identification, will be found in Mr. Alfred Newton’s
< Ootheea Wolleyana;’ but, as they are 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 which
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. Hewitson 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 buffy 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 buffy 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.