370 FALCON AND EAGLE GROUP 



the feathers, and the lower part of the same — from the middle 

 backwards — white with heavy chocolate-brown barrings. Females 

 differ by their slight superiority in size ; while immature birds may be 

 recognised by the lighter colour of the head, the pale edges to the 

 feathers of the upper-parts, and the large circular chocolate blotches on 

 the otherwise white breast. It is further noticeable that at this stage 

 the colour of the eyes is hazel, although in the adult this changes to 

 pale straw. For some unexplained reason the species shows a marked 

 tendency to the development of a black phase, and brownish -black 

 specimens are far from uncommon at all ages. 



The geographical range (both as regards the breeding -area 

 and migration) of the honey-buzzard is very similar to that of the 

 cuckoo ; both species wintering in Africa, and crossing the Mediter- 

 ranean in spring (during the month of May in the case of the present 

 species) to spread themselves over the greater part of Europe, pene- 

 trating a considerable distance north of the Arctic Circle. The range 

 of the honey-buzzard to the eastward is, however, by no means limited 

 by the confines of Europe, and it is probable that the species extends 

 in this direction at least as far as Turkestan. In the greater part 

 of Siberia it is, however, replaced by the nearly allied crested 

 honey-buzzard {Pernis cristatd), which visits India, China, and Japan. 

 Honey-buzzards cross the Mediterranean in large flocks, not un- 

 frcquently including hundreds of individuals. The comparative late- 

 ness of the arrival of this species, more especially in the far north, is 

 mainly due to the nature of its food. 



Of the numerous honey-buzzards which wing their way northwards 

 in spring, only a few stragglers occasionally reach the British Isles at 

 the present day ; a considerable percentage of these being seen on the 

 autumn return journey rather than on the outward route. Needless to 

 say, most of these wanderers receive the kind of reception accorded 

 to rare birds in general. In former days the case was, however, very 

 different ; and in the eighteenth century honey-buzzards still nested 

 in various parts of Hampshire, Oxfordshire, and other well-wooded 

 districts. Not that the breeding of this species in England was by 

 any means limited to the eighteenth, or even the first half of the 

 following century. On the contrary, nests were recorded from various 

 places in the New Forest in 1871 and the two following years, while 

 young are reported to have been seen there so recently as 1895. The 

 alleged breeding of the species in Somersetshire, chronicled in the first 

 year of the present century as having taken place in 1897 and 1899, 

 is based on an error. Eggs were also taken at no very distant 



