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Notice of the Capture of Perni.s upivorus (Honey Buzzard), a rare 

 specie* of the British Falconidce ; and of the Wry-neck. By 

 P. J. SELBY, Esq. 



THIS individual was caught in a steel spring-trap on the 28th of 

 August last, under circumstances which, as illustrative of the peculiar 

 habits of the species, I think it may not be altogether uninteresting to 

 detail. On the afternoon of the 27th August, a large bird, apparently 

 of the hawk species, was observed by Mr B. Atherton in the grounds at 

 Twizell, to rise from the ground beneath the decumbent branches of a 

 Platanus. Upon going to the spot, he observed a number of wasps 

 (Vespa vulgaris) flying around, and part of a nest and broken comb 

 scratched out of a large hole at the root of the tree, in which it had been 

 built. The fact was mentioned on his return to the house, and from the 

 circumstances detailed, I conjectured it might possibly be the work of a 

 honey-buzzard ; an inspection of the place an hour or two afterwards 

 strengthened this supposition, as it was evident the aggressor had again 

 been there, having nearly torn the whole of the comb to pieces, and 

 cleared it of the wasps, grubs, and immature young with which it had 

 been filled. At the suggestion of Mrs Selby, two steel-traps were set in 

 the evening, close to the site of the destroyed wasp-hive, and baited 

 with two large pieces of comb taken from another nest, destroyed a few 

 evenings previously. Upon looking at them early the following morning, 

 they appeared undisturbed, but during the course of the forenoon, the 

 bird was again observed upon a tree within view of the traps, and ap- 

 parently reconnoitering the place, and it then allowed of a near ap- 

 proach. It would appear, that whatever suspicions it might have en- 

 tertained, it had not long been able to resist the cravings of its appetite, 

 as it was found in the evening secured by its leg in one of the traps. 

 From its size, I conjectured it to be a male, and such it proved upon 

 dissection, and an adult bird, from the difference of colour, as constrast- 

 ed with two birds of the year in my possession, as well as from the pure 

 yellow of its cere and legs, those parts in the young being of a greenish 

 grey. It measured 21 inches in extreme length, and 3 feet 7 inches in 

 extent of wing; the cere was of a fine lemon-yellow, the top of the bill 

 bluish-black, the iris dark bluish-grey; the tarsi about Ij inch in 

 length, feathered in part about half-way down, the naked part and feet 

 yellow. The claws very little arched, but sharp ; the tail long, fan-like, 

 and extending beyond the closed wings about 2J inches. The exte- 

 rior plumage is of an uniform dark or umber brown, including the close- 

 set feathers around the eyes, which, from their tiled disposition and 

 firmness, appear well adapted to protect the face of the bird from the 

 stings of hymenopterous insects. The bottom or lower part of the plu- 



