300 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



In its general form it resembles the JButeones, but is more slenderly built, and has 

 a longer tail, in both of which respects it resembles the kites. The sides of the head, 

 however, are softly and densely feathered to the very base of the bill, in this respect 

 differing entirely from most members of both these groups, though we see an approach 

 to this character in Elanoides. It gets its name of honey-buzzard from its habit of 

 digging up or breaking open the nests of wasps and bees, on the larvae of which it 

 delights to feed, and in the gathering of which the densely feathered head is proof 

 against the stings of the infuriated insects. It probably also enjoys the honey, which 

 it certainly eats, for large quantities have been found in its stomach, accompanied by 

 but very few larvae, though it has usually been supposed that the honey was only 

 eaten by accident with the young bees. This fondness for larvae is not satisfied with 

 bees alone, for the bird eats larvae of various other insects, as well as worms, small 

 reptiles, and mammals, and has even been found gorged with maggots, which were 

 obtained from the carcass of a dead animal. It also robs the nests of the smaller 

 birds, and is much persecuted by them in consequence. 



It is a migratory species, spending the winter in Africa, and moving northward in 

 the spring, frequently traveling in large, loose flocks. Of these migrations as observed 

 at Heligoland, that little rock in the North Sea so famous as a resting-place for 

 tired migrants, Mr. J. Cordeaux tells us "Mr. Gatke says this is by far the most 

 common of the buzzards, not, however, appearing in the spring before it really has 

 become warm, returning southward again in August and September. Besides single 

 specimens, and two and three at a time, there are during both periods of migration, 

 not very unfrequently, such flights that they may almost be termed thousands, not 

 all massed together, but passing over from mid-day to evening in batches of from five 

 to fifteen, or twenty to fifty, one following the other so closely that the first batch is 

 not out of sight before the third or even the fourth begins to show already. The ver- 

 nal migration takes place about the latter part of May, or a little earlier, on warm 

 days with a calm clear sky and easterly wind." 



Contrary to the general rule among birds of prey, it is very late in nesting, its 

 eggs being seldom laid until the young of other hawks and buzzards are hatched or 

 even half grown. The nest, frequently the deserted one of another kite, is placed 

 in a tree, and in it two or three beautifully marked eggs are laid. These have long 

 been counted as special prizes by European collectors, and perhaps it is largely owing 

 to this demand for its eggs that the species has of late years ceased to breed abun- 

 dantly in places where it formerly did so. By the time the nest is built, the oaks and 

 beeches are in full leaf, and the nest consequently difficult to find, and its safety is 

 still further assured by a curious habit of the birds themselves, which leads them to 

 line and decorate the nest with an abundance of fresh green leaves, which they renew 

 as fast as they become faded. This is done first before the eggs are laid, and is kept 

 up sometimes until after they are hatched, though more commonly only for a short 

 time after laying. One or two other species of this genus are known. 



The sub-family Polyborinae, carrion-buzzards, is a small group of eight or nine 

 species, all confined to America, and only two of them found above Panama. In 

 their habits they combine characteristics of the New World vultures with those of 

 ordinary buzzards and eagles. Structurally they are easily separable from both, and 

 although externally they suggest the Aquilinae, Ridgway has shown that osteologically 

 they are nearer the falcons. 



They may readily be recognized by the webbing between the toes, this being found 



