124 FALCONID^E. 



tioii. It breeds in the southern parts of Norway, and 

 examples taken from the nest in that country have been 

 sent to the Zoological Gardens by Mr. Percy Godman, but 

 it is not a common bird there and does not, in the opinion 

 of Herr Collett, cross the Dovre-fjeld, In Sweden it cer- 

 tainly goes much further north, and Wolley obtained its 

 eggs from the neighbourhood of the Finnish frontier some 

 way within the Arctic circle. Pallas states- that it has been 

 observed throughout Russia and Siberia, but the enterprising 

 ornithologists who have more recently explored the most 

 northern and eastern parts of Asia have not met with it, 

 though it occurs in Japan, whence there is a specimen in 

 the Leyden Museum, and Pere David has obtained it in 

 autumn near Pekin. It apparently does not inhabit India 

 — the examples from that country, formerly attributed to it, 

 belonging to another species, the Pernis ptUorhynclms. In 

 Palestine the Honey-Buzzard is rather scarce, though believed 

 to be a resident, but in Arabia and Egypt, wdiere it is said 

 to be common, it seems to be only a winter visitant. Two 

 specimens have been sent from Natal to Mr. Gurney, and 

 though it has not occurred to Mr. Layard in the Cape Colony, 

 it is believed that the " Tachard " of Le Vaillant, which he 

 says he procured there, is founded upon this species. The 

 Leyden Museum contains two examples from the Gold Coast. 

 Singularly enough it does not seem to have been recorded 

 from Algeria ; but Mr. G. W. H. Hay mentions it as passing 

 northward over Tangiers in spring in immense numbers, 

 while Lord Lilford on one occasion observed the return 

 autumnal flight, consisting of many hundreds, crossing the 

 Straits of Gibraltar from Spain to Africa. 



Throughout all the countries in which it is found, the 

 Honey-Buzzard seems to be a local bird, but it is a well- 

 known species in almost every part of Europe, and the places 

 where it occurs, even, as it were, accidentally, and is killed 

 are often visited by other examples for several years in suc- 

 cession. Thus Sir William Jardine remarks of one killed 

 in Northumberland : — 



" The district around Twizel appears to have something 



