BROWN BEE-HAWK. 255 



The colouriug of this bird, which varies nearly as much as 

 that of the Brown Buzzard, is still a subject of dispute, some 

 authors considering the individuals of which the head and lower 

 parts are white, as adult, while others are of opinion that they 'are 

 young. The Honey Buzzard being of very rare occurrence, so 

 that one has little chance of meeting with a live or recent spe- 

 cimen in the course of many years, this question cannot be de- 

 cided by me. I shall therefore confine myself to the description 

 of two individuals obtained in Scotland, one of which I had the 

 good fortune to receive entire. The other I have examined 

 after it was preserved and mounted. They were both males, 

 but while one was of a nearly uniform brown colour, the other 

 was brown above, and white spotted with brown beneath. The 

 former would be considered a young bird by M. Temminck, the 

 latter an adult. 



Young INIale. — This individual was killed near Stirlinof in 

 June 1838, and came into my hands on the 9th of that month, 

 when it was perfectly fresh. The description which I took at 

 the time is as follows : — The form is rather slender and elon- 

 gated, the body moderately full, the neck of ordinary length or 

 rather short, the head ovato-oblong. The bill, although slen- 

 der, compared with that of other birds of this order, is rather 

 stout. The aperture of the mouth is wide, and extends to be- 

 neath the anterior angle of the eye ; the cere large ; the upper 

 mandible with its outline as far as the edge of the cere convexo- 

 declinate, then curved in the third of a circle, the sides convex, 

 the edges soft to beneath the anterior extremity of the nostrils, 

 then hard, direct, and sharp, the tip slender, acute, descending; 

 the lower mandible comparatively small, with the back broad, 

 the sides rounded, the edges as in the upper, the tip rounded ; 

 the gape-line arched from the base. Nostrils oblongo-linear, 

 large, oblique. Upper mandible a little concave, lower broadly 

 channelled, with a median prominent line. Tongue deeply 

 concave above, M'ith the sides nearly parallel, the tip rounded 

 but emarginate. Eyelids feathered, but their margins bare. 

 Limbs short ; tarsus robust, anteriorly covered with feathers 

 halfway down, on the rest of its extent with angular scales. 



