426 HO MR A I— HONE Y-B UZZARD 



sciatic is the artery of the thigh, but with the last named forming 

 the combination Mesomyodi, as opposed to> the Acromyodi, the 

 other great section of Passeres. 



HOMRAI, the Nepalese name, often used by Anglo-Indians, of 

 the Great Indian Hornbill. 



HONEY-BIRD, an expression of respectable antiquity, since it 

 was used by Sylvester early in the seventeenth century {D\i Bartas, 

 IFeeJce II.), but with no attempt at precision, and since applied in- 

 discriminately to birds of various sorts (see Honey-Eater). 



HONEY-BUZZARD, the English name in Willughby's day ot 

 a bird which he thought he was describing for the first time ; but 

 herein he was wrong, for it was the Boudree^ of Belon (1555). It 

 is the Falco apivorus of Linnseus, generically separated in 1817 by 

 Cuvier, together with the crested eastern species from Java, as 

 Pernis, which word, as before stated (p. 68, note) should be written 

 Pternis." Willughby spoke of it as being not unfrequent in this 

 country, and the statement need not be doubted, but the destruction 

 of our old forests, and the depredations of gamekeepers, who foolishly 

 look upon this innocent bird as an enemy, have almost extirpated it 

 in England, though a few pairs return every summer with the intent 

 (generally frustrated) to breed in some of our larger woods, while 

 towards the fall of the year young birds of the season visit this 

 island on the way to their winter-quarters ; and, through ignorance 

 or wantonness, are generally killed. The home of these autumnal 

 visitants can be only vaguely surmised to exist in some north- 

 eastern country, for the species is not ordinarily common in Scandi- 

 navia; but its yearly passage, often in great numbers, over Heligoland 

 in August and September is one of the most remarkable ornithological 

 features of that, remarkable ornithological spot.^ 



' In modern French Bondree, which, according to Littre, is from tlie old word 

 bondir, to cry out ; but he takes no nolice of the more ancient form, and that 

 may perhaps be supposed to be rehited to louder, to be alone or withdraw from 

 company (cf. the French haudoir and the English " withdrawing-room ") — in a 

 secondary sense to sulk. 



- The mistaken spelling is much older than Cuvier, for Gaza the first trans- 

 lator of Aristotle has Pernix [Hist. Anim. ix. 36, Venetiis : 1525, fol. 34). 

 Gloger in 1842 [Hand- und Hilfshuch der Naturgcsch. p. 215) noticed this error, 

 but seems himself to have been the victim of a misprint. The eastern species 

 was not technically denominated by Cuvier in his work, but was doubtless, after 

 his custom, named in the Paris Museum, whence Vieillot in 1823 [Encyclop. 

 Method, p. 1225) described it as Bideo cristatus. In the same y^ar it was 

 described and figured by Temminck and Laugier {PL col. 44) as Falco j^tilorhyn- 

 elms, a specific name so bad, that unless its priority be clearly established it 

 should be given up for cristatus. 



^ Hcrr Giitke ( Vogclw. Helgoland, p. 190) records one extraordinary instance. 

 During the forenoon of tlie 19th of September 1858 parties of from 5 to 10 were 



