316 THE HONEY BUZZARD. 



served by the gamekeeper at Dunglass." ^ Its stomach was 

 filled with wasps, honey-bees, bumbees (humble-bees), and 

 beetles." In the summer of 1879 a bird of this species 

 frequented Penmanshiel Wood, and was left unmolested.^ 

 A beautiful specimen, with cream-coloured under-parts, was 

 shot in the south plantation at Laws, in the parish of Whit- 

 some, by Mr. John Alder, on the 26th of October 1888. 



The flight of this Buzzard is slow, like that of its con- 

 geners, and it resembles them in its general habits, but it 

 differs from them considerably with regard to its food, which 

 principally consists of the larvae of wasps, bees, and other 

 insects, as well as earth-worms, slugs, small birds' eggs, and 

 moles. 



The plumage varies much in colour, especially in birds 

 of the first and second year, and, according to Mr. Seebohm, 

 there appear to be light and dark forms. He adds that 

 this species may be at once distinguished from the buzzard 

 {Buteo vulgaris) "by the scales on the tarsus, which are 

 finely reticulated all round, instead of being in broad plates 

 at the front and the back. Another equally important 

 distinction may be found in the lores, which are finely 

 feathered down to the cere, in place of being only covered 

 with bristles." ^ 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. viii. pp. 190, 191. 



2 Information from Mr. John Bolton, gamekeeper, Dunglass, in letter dated 

 the 3rd of December 1884. 



"> Mist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. ix. p. 409. 



^ Henry Seebohm, History of British Birds, vol. i. (1883), p. 71. 



