ARCHIBUTEO LAGOPUS.
Rough-legged Buzzard.

Falco lagopus, Briinn. Orn. Bor., p. 4.

—— plumipes, Daud. Traité d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 163.

Buteo pennatus, Daud. Traité d’Orn., tom. ii. p- 156.

lagopus, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiii, pt. il. p. 47.
Archibuteo planiceps et alticeps, Brehm, Vog. Deutsch., pp. 40 & 41,
commen (egopus, Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. Doce

Butaétes buteo, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 83.

lagopus, Bonap. Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., pase

 

 

 

Dr. Barro, in his ‘Catalogue of North American Birds,’ gives the temperate portions of Europe and
America as the habitat of the 4rchibuteo lagopus. If this be the true state of the case, then the bird enjoys
a wide range; but Mr. J. H. Gurney, our highest authority with respect to Raptorial birds, considers that
it is not found in America, and inclines to the opinion that the American individuals, hitherto supposed
to be identical with the European bird, were the young of the allied species Archibuteo Sancti-Johannis. I
do not find it in Schrenck’s « List of -the Birds of the Amoor,’ and Mr. Swinhoe did not meet with it in
Northern China. Its separation from the genus Buteo has mainly been suggested by the feathering of
the tarsi, a difference very similar to that seen between the Golden and Sea Eagles. The Common and
Rough-legged Buzzards also differ considerably in their habits, particularly in the situations they frequent.
The latter is less of a woodland species than the former, and in Norway will be found among the bleak open
moorlands, hunting the mountain-sides for hares, lemmings, moles, &c., and, when not on the wing, sitting
on a large stone in the middle of the moor, watching the Ptarmigan and Willow-grouse, upon which it makes
a stoop when inclined to feed. I have seen it, with its long flapping wings, hunting over the wild uplands
of the Dovrefjeld, when its actions, as seen at a distance, so much resembled those of the Harriers, that
for a time I mistook it for one of those birds. In England it must be considered an irregular visitant, for
its occurrence here is very uncertain; when it does come, it generally makes its appearance in autumn,
and takes up its quarters in the great rabbit-warrens of Norfolk and Suffolk, where its lives until it has
been trapped or received an unequivocal notice to quit. It not unfrequently happens that as many as
thirty or forty appear at a time, and it is on record that even a larger number have been killed in a single
season. Most of these wanderers from their native moors are young birds of the year, which have attained
their full size, but which are very differently coloured, being marked with longitudinal tawny blotches,
while the adults are barred with brown and buffy white, particularly on the lower part of the abdomen and
the thighs. With reference to the occurrence of the bird in Norfolk, Mr. Stevenson says, “‘ The Rough-
legged Buzzard appears here in autumn and throughout the winter, their numbers varying greatly in different
seasons ; and though at times very scarce, they have been known to visit us in very considerable numbers.
During the months of November, December, and January, 1839-40, no less than forty-seven specimens were
obtained within eight miles of Thetford, and many more were killed in other parts of the county. From
that time until the autumn of 1858, they were rather scarce ; between October and January of the following
year about twenty were obtained, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Thetford and Yarmouth. They have ae
been plentiful during the present winter (1862-63), though not to the extent above alluded to: one bird-
stuffer in Norwich has had four or five, and a game-dealer at Yarmouth seven or eight more; they have also,
I learn, been procured in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and other adjoining counties. Nearly all the specimens
obtained on this coast, however, are in immature plumage ; indeed I know of but four or five adult birds,
with the cross bars on the thigh-feathers, in our local collections.” oe

It must not be supposed that the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk are the only parts of Great Britain in
which this bird is found ; for examples have been obtained in Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Kent; it has
also been found in Scotland and in various parts of Ireland. It is evidently a northern rather fen a southern
Species ; for it rarely, if ever, crosses the Mediterranean, and, in our own island, seldom visits the south-
western counties of Devonshire and Cornwall. |

Mr. Wheelwright states, in his ‘Spring and Summer in Lapland,’ “that the Rough-legged Buzzard was

by far the commonest of all the birds of prey in the Quickiock district during the summer, probably mn conse-
They appeared as spring migrants early in

quence of the number of lemmings which swarmed on the fells. | ne
I have obtainec

May, and the first nest I obtained was on the 21st of that month: it contained three eggs. :
a nest with five, and one with six; but three is the usual number. ‘The nest, a coarse euinioe of sticks, moss,
and grass, loosely put together, was often on a fell ridge below the snow-region, often in a tree, but never

 

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