HONEY-BUZZARD. 125 



attractive to this species, for, within these few years, several 

 specimens have been procured both in the adult and im- 

 mature plumage. The bird in question was accidentally 

 observed to rise from the situation of a wasp's nest, which 

 it had been attempting to excavate, or in fact to a certain 

 extent had accomplished, and the large hole which had 

 been scraped, shewed that a much greater power could be 

 employed, and that the bird possessed organs much better 

 fitted to remove the obstacles which generally concealed its 

 prey, than a superficial examination of the feet and legs 

 would warrant us in ascribing to it. A few hours after- 

 wards, the task was found to be entirely completed, the 

 comb torn out and cleared from the immature young ; and 

 after-dissection proved that at this season (autumn) at least, 

 birds or mammalia formed no part of the food. A steel- 

 trap, baited with the comb, secured the aggressor in the 

 course of the next day, when he had returned to review the 

 scene of his previous havoc." 



Examination has usually proved the food to have been the 

 larvae of bees and wasps, obtained in the manner above 

 described ; but the remains of coleopterous and lepidopterous 

 insects have also been found in the stomach of the Honey- 

 Buzzard, as well as corn, earth-worms, slugs, small birds' 

 eggs and moles, while M. Gerbe discovered a young Wild 

 Duck and a fish in a nest he saw. The feet have been 

 noticed to be covered with cow-dung, shewing that the bird 

 had been searching therein for the grubs it contained. One 

 example is said to have been shot in the act of pursuing 

 a Wood-Pigeon, and Mr. Sterland records the very singular 

 capture in Inkersal Forest of two Honey-Buzzards taken 

 simultaneously in a trap baited with a rabbit.* A bird of 



* A somewhat similar instance has long been known to the Editor. A pair 

 of Kestrels, together with a Red-legged Partridge, were found by a gamekeeper 

 in the same trap, which was set at the mouth of a rabbit-burrow. The Partridge 

 must, as is the habit of the species, have been about to take shelter in the hole 

 at the moment when the Hawks seized it. All three birds are still preserved at 

 Cavenham Hall, in Suffolk, where the occurrence took place. An instance of 

 the simultaneous capture of a Falcon and a Stock-Dove is also recorded by the 

 late Mr. Salmon (Mag. Nat. Hist, iv. p. 147). 



