126 FALCONID.E. 



this species, kept in confinement, killed and ate rats, as 

 well as birds of considerable size, with great ease and good 

 appetite. Buffon says, that in winter, when fat, the Honey- 

 Buzzard is good eating. 



As was long ago observed by Willughby, the Honey- 

 Buzzard "runs very swiftly like a Hen," and its carriage 

 and the short, rounded feathers which clothe its lores give 

 it the most unhawk-like look of all the British Falconklce. 

 Mr. Newcome, who obtained some young birds from the 

 nest in France, found them, though allowed complete 

 liberty, to be exceedingly tame and domestic. Notwith- 

 standing their familiarity, however, as autumn approached 

 they disappeared, joining no doubt the bands of their 

 brethren migrating southwards at that season. 



This species, like some of the true Buzzards, presents 

 remarkable variety in colour and markings, especially in 

 birds of the first or second year ; but after the assumption 

 of the uniform ashy-grey head, indicating maturity, there is 

 little irregularity. Some extreme variations are well illus- 

 trated in Naumann's work on the birds of Germany, and a 

 series of figures, intending to shew the successive changes 

 of plumage, have been given by Mr. Fisher in ' The Zoologist' 

 for 1842 (pp. 376, 377) and 1843 (p. 793). 



The figure and description here given were taken from a 

 specimen in the British Museum, which was killed near 

 York. The beak is black; the cere grey, the irides 

 yellow ; the upper part of the head and back of the neck 

 buflfy-white, with brown streaks ; uniform brown above ; 

 the primaries nearly black, the tail above barred transversely 

 with two shades of brown : the front of the neck, breast, 

 and belly, pale yellow-brown ; the shaft and middle line of 

 each feather marked by a dark brown longitudinal streak or 

 patch, those of the belly transversely barred : thighs and 

 under tail-coverts varied with yellowish-brown and white ; 

 the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. Honey-Buzzards 

 measure from twenty-two to twenty-five inches, depending 

 on the sex. In the young the irides are hazel, but become 

 straw-coloured with age. 



