184 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



21. — Honey Buzzard [Wespenbussakd]. 

 FALCO APIVORUS, Linn.^ 



Faico apivorus. Naumann, i. 307. 



Honey Buszard. Dresser, vi. 3. 



Buse bondree. Temminek, i. 67, iii. 38. 



Remarkable as Heligolanders are for the faculty of recognising 

 peculiarities of habits, etc., in the birds which frequent their island, 

 this faculty seems in the present case not to have been exercised. 

 For whereas the local shooter and observer is generally very ready 

 as well as happy in the choice of a local name for a bird manifest- 

 ing any such peculiarity, no such name seems to have as yet been 

 applied to this particular bird. This, like the preceding species, is 

 simply called Bott-uhl, i.e. Short Owl. Probably this absence of a 

 distmctive designation is due to the fact of the bird being a bird 

 of passage only, so that a close investigation of its manner and 

 mode of life is rendered impossible. Moreover, its migration takes 

 place at a time when, for the majority of Heligolanders, bird-shoot- 

 ing has already ceased to be a profitable pursuit — to wit, during 

 the latter half of May, and again from the middle of August to the 

 middle of September. Hence the bird is but rarely shot, and its 

 characteristic feature, the feathered bridles or lora, fail to attract 

 the notice of any but such few sportsmen as combine an interest 

 in ornithology with their love of sport. To them the Honey 

 Buzzard is of course well enough known. 



Only once, during the first few years of my collecting, did I 

 secure a very fine old example of this species. In this example 

 the head was of a light bluish grey, the sides of the upper breast 

 and longest feathers of the flanks being white, with a few kidney- 

 shaped light brown spots. Unfortunately, owing to my knowledge 

 being at that time still very hmited, the example was ruined, and I 

 have never since met with one which even approached it in beauty. 



As already stated, the spring migration of this species takes 

 place pretty late. Their autumn migration, on the other hand, is 

 commenced very early, and the birds somehow always manage 

 to avoid rough weather during its progress. In the spring one 

 rarely sees many of the birds together, but during their autumn 

 migration they almost alwaj-s travel in smaller or larger assem- 

 blages, which sometimes, during the first weeks of September, 

 assume considerable dimensions. Thus, on one of these days — 

 the 19th of December 1858 — small groups of from three, five, and 



' Pemis apiforus'lLmn.). 



