ARCHIBUTEO LAGOPUS.
Houg’li-leg'g’ed Buzzard.
Fako lagopus, Brünn. Orn. Bor., p. 4.
plumipes, Daud. Traité d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 163.
Buteo pennatus, Daud. Traite d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 156.
lagopus, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiii. pt. ii. p. 47.
Archibuteo planiceps et alticeps, Brehm, Vog. Deutsch., pp. 40 & 41.
------------ lagopus, Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 3.
Butactes buteo, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 83.
----------lagopus, Bonap. Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 3.
D r . B a i r d , in his ‘ Catalogue of North American Birds,’ gives the temperate portions of Europe and
America as the habitat o f the Archibuteo lagopus. If this be the true state of the case, then the bird enjoys
a wide ran g e ; but Mr. J . H. Gurney, our highest authority with respect to Raptorial birds, considers that
it is not foundYikAmerica, and inclines to the opinion that the American individuals, hitherto supposed
to be identical withHlm European bird, were the young of the allied species Archibuteo Sancti-Johannis. I
do not find it in Schrenck’s g List o f 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,
'flie 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, See., and, when not on the wing, sitting
on a large stone in the middle of the moor, watching the P tarmigan 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
o f 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 o f 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 o f Norfolk and Suffolk, where it lives until it has
been trapped or received an unequivocal notice to quit. It not unfrequently happens that as many as
thirty o r forty appear a t 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 o f 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 o f the bird in Norfolk, Mr. Stevenson says, “ The Roughlegged
Buzzard appears here in autumn and throughout the winter, their numbers varying greatly in different
seasons; and though a t times very scarce, they have been known to visit us in very considerable numbers.
During the months o f 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 o f the county. From
that time until the autumn o f 1858, they were rather scarce; between October and January o f the following
year about twenty were obtained, chiefly in the neighbourhood o f Thetford and Yarmouth. They have also
been plentiful during the present winter (1 8 6 2 -6 3 ), though not to the extent above alluded to : one bird-
stuffer in Norwich has had four o r 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.”
It must not be supposed that the counties o f Norfolk and Suffolk are the only parts o f Great Britain in
which this bird is found; for examples have been obtained in Yorkshire, Northumberland, and K e n t; it has
also been found in Scotland and in various parts o f Ireland. I t is evidently a northern rather than a sonthern
species; for it rarely, if ever, crosses the Mediterranean, and, in onr own islSnd, 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 dnring the summer, probably in consequence
o f the number of lemmings which swarmed on the fells. They appeared as spring migrants early in
May, and the first nest I obtained was on the 21st o f that month 9 it contained three eggs. I have obtained
n nest with five, and one with s ix ; hut three is the usual number. The nest, a coarse edifice o f sticks, moss,
and grass, loosely put together, was often on a fell-ridge below the snow-region, often in a tree, but never