HONEY BUZZARD. 45 
which were also found in it; yet no one would therefore 
contend that moss formed part of its food. It was observed 
by Mr. Fisher, when very hungry, to swallow pieces of comb 
with the larve in it, eating both together in its hurry; but 
when it was not very hungry, it used to pick the insects 
out, and reject the comb. 
In this country many more specimens of this bird have been 
noticed and procured of late years than formerly, doubtless 
from more attention having been directed to the study of 
ornithology. Montagu says “that in his time it was extremely 
rare, and he describes a specimen which was killed at High- 
dere, the seat of the Earl of Carnarvon, in Berkshire. The 
Rey. Gilbert White mentions the circumstance of a_ pair 
having built in his parish, in Selborne Hanger, (the common 
name in Berkshire for a wood.) Latham had only seen one 
recent specimen, and though Willughby says that it was 
tolerably common in his time, yet he most probably was not 
speaking with any very gre at accuracy. A. HK. Knox, Esq. 
says that it is more frequent in Sussex than either the Kite 
or the so-called Common Buzzard. It will be observed that 
most of the specimens which have occurred have been on the 
eastern side of the island, which seems rather to confirm the 
supposition, suggested by the nature of its pe and the 
season of the year it has been met with, that it is a summer 
visitant. 
It is easily tamed, and shews little or none of the fierceness 
of birds of prey. 
In Yorkshire, a few specimens have been met with in the 
East and West Ridings, more, it is said, in the neighbourhood 
of Doncaster, than in any other part, and it is not unlikely, 
as there are a great many large woods, as I well know, on 
all sides of that handsome town. One killed near York has 
the honour of being preserved in the British Museum. In 
the year 1849, one was obtained at Bridlington-Quay in the 
following curious manner:—The goodman of the house had 
gone to bed, and about twelve o’clock at night, he was 
disturbed by a beating against his window. ‘The noise con- 
tinuing, he got up, opened the lattice, and captured a fine 
Honey Buzzard, which had been flapping and beating against 
it. In Northumberland, one was killed at Wallington, and — 
another in Thrunton Wood in the same county, in the year 
1829, as recorded by the Hon. H. T. Liddell. One shot near 
Blaydon, two picked up dead on the sea shore, and two 
