HONEY-BUZZARD. 69 
PERNIS APIVORUS. 
HONEY-BUZZARD. 
(Piare 3.) 
Accipiter buteo apivorus, Briss. Orn. i. p. 410 (1760). 
Falco apivorus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 180 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
(Naumann), (Temminck), (Cuvier), (Bonaparte), (Sharpe), &e. 
Falco tachardus, Daud. Traité d’ Orn, ii. p. 164 (1800, ex Lev.). 
Falco poliorynchos, Bechst, Orn. Taschenb. i. p. 19, pls. 3, 4, 5 (1802), 
Buteo tachardus (Daud.), Vieill. N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. iv. p. 479 (1816). 
Buteo apivorus (Linn.), Viewll. N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. iv. p. 479 (1816), 
Aquila variabilis, Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. p. 115 (1816). 
Pernis apivorus (Linn.), Cuv. Régne An, i. p. 823 (1817). 
Accipiter lacertarius, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As, 1. p. 859 (1826). 
Pernis communis, Less. T’raité d’Orn. p. 75 (1831). 
Pernis apium, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 46 (1831). 
Pernis vesparum, Lrehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 47 (1851). 
Pernis tachardus (Daud.), Gray, Hand-l, B. i. p. 26 (1869). 
The Honey-Buzzard was formerly a regular summer visitant to this 
country, breeding in most of the counties of England and Wales, where 
the woods were large enough to afford it a secure retreat for its nest. In 
Scotland and in Ireland the information we have is very meagre; but it 
appears to have formerly bred in both these countries, where it has now, as 
well as in England, become a rare summer visitor. It is also occasionally 
seen on the autumn migration. It is a great pity that such an extremely 
handsome and entirely harmless bird should be on the verge of extermina- 
tion in our country. In addition to the persecutions of the gamekeepers, 
who have not yet learnt to distinguish between useful and harmful birds of 
prey, it is much sought after by collectors, both for its skin and for its 
remarkably handsome eggs. In spite, however, of all its enemies, it still 
yearly breeds in the New Forest and some other parts of England and 
Scotland. 
On the continent the Honey-Buzzard, though nowhere very common, 
breeds in some numbers north of latitude 45° up to the Arctic Circle. Its 
occurrence further north rests upon very insufficient evidence. It appears 
to bea very local bird ; but it breeds regularly in well-wooded districts in the 
north of France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, 8. Norway 
and Sweden, and Russia. Eastwards its breeding-range appears to be 
comparatively little known. Pallas records it from Southern Siberia; and 
my Siberian collector has sent me a skin from Krasnoyarsk. Taczanowski 
records an example without a crest from Lake Baikal; two examples from 
Japan are mentioned by Temminck and Schlegel as undistinguishable from 
