QQQ PERNIS APIVORUS. 



lays small yellowish-white eggs, marked with large 

 reddish-brown patches, often entirely of that colour 

 or with numerous spots so close together that the white 

 is scarcely perceptible." 



An egg, from France, in the Museum of the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh, is of a broad elliptical form, two 

 inches and half a twelfth in length, one inch and six 

 and a half twelfths in its greatest diameter, white, with 

 blotches of greenish-brown. It is old, however, and I 

 have observed that xeddish-brown or umber on eggs 

 generally becomes greenish-brown from the action of 

 light. 



Remarks. — Under this head I have to state, that 

 the specimen from which my description of the male 

 has been taken, was kindly lent to me by my highly 

 esteemed friend John Bushnan, Esq., Dumfries, a gen- 

 tleman not less respectable for his attainments in na- 

 tural history, than deserving of my gratitude for his 

 readiness to forwai'd my views with respect to it/ All 

 the other birds of this species that I have seen were 

 stuffed specimens ; and I have not found any account of 

 the intestinal canal, excepting Willughby's very brief 

 notice : " Intestines shorter than in the common buzzard; 

 appendices (or caeca) short but thick. In the stomach 

 and intestines of that which we dissected, there was 

 found a vast number of common green caterpillars and 

 others." The bird must have been in a state of dis- 

 ease, otherwise the worms could not have got into its 

 intestines. 



Buffon, whose description of this bird is compiled, 

 states that it is taken with snares, it being in winter 



