88 FALCONID^. 



cffff was smaller, and not so round as tliosc of tlie Common 

 Buzzard ; was dotted at each end witli small red spots, and 

 surrounded in the middle with a broad blood-red zone.*" 

 Pennant mentions an instance of a Honey Buzzard that was 

 shot on her nest, Avhicli contained two eggs blotched over 

 with two shades of red, something darker than those of the 

 Kestrel. The eggs of the Honey Buzzard are rare : I have 

 only seen three or four specimens, one of which answered to 

 the description given by White, the colouring matter being 

 confined to a broad band round the middle. One specimen 

 in my collection resembles those mentioned by Pennant, 

 being mottled nearly all over with two shades of orange 

 brown : long diameter, two inches one line ; transverse dia- 

 meter, one inch nine lines. Willughby says, the Honey 

 Buzzard builds its nest of small twigs, lining it with wool, 

 and adds, " We saw one that made use of an old Kite's nest 

 to breed in, and that fed its young with the nymphee of 

 wasps ; for in the nest we found the combs of wasps"" nests, 

 and in the stomach of the young the limbs and fragments of 

 wasp-maggots. There were in the nest but two young ones, 

 covered with a white down, spotted with black. Their feet 

 were of a pale yellow ; their Ijills between the nostrils and 

 the head, white ; their craws large, — in which were lizards, 

 frogs, &c. In the crop of one of them we found two lizards 

 entire, with their heads lying towards the bird''s mouth, as if 

 they sought to creep out." 



Willughby appears to have been the first to describe and 

 name the Honey Buzzard as a British bird. 



Besides various specimens obtained in Suffolk, Norfolk, 

 and along the eastern coast as far north as Northumberland, 

 which have been already referred to, the Honey Buzzard has 

 been killed in several western counties, including Dorsetshire, 

 Devonshire, and Worcestershire. Dr. Heysham considered 

 it very rare in Cumberland, and had only met with one spe- 



