HONEY BUZZARD. 33 



THE HONEY BUZZARD. 



Per)iis apiroyus. 



The Honey Buzzard is a rare summer visitor to England, 

 and has occurred in Oxfordshire on three or four occasions. 

 From an interesting paper on these birds breeding in England, 

 by the late Mr. P. J. Wilmot, communicated by the late Mr. 

 Yarrell to the Zoologist for 1844, the following particulars are 

 extracted. Early in July, 1838, a female Honey Buzzard was 

 shot off her nest in Wellgrove Wood, in the parish of Bix, 

 near Henley-on-Thames, by a gamekeeper of Lord Camoys, 

 named Lowe, and, with two eggs taken from the nest, passed 

 into the hands of a birdstuffer at Henley of the name of 

 Hewer. The male bird, which continued to haunt the 

 neighbourhood of the nest, was not long after killed by 

 another of the keepers. The nest, a very large one, was 

 placed in the fork of a beech tree, and was built of sticks of 

 considerable size, with which were intermixed twigs with the 

 leaves on ; the lining was composed of leaves and wool. 

 One of these eggs is now in the Wolley collection at Cam- 

 bridge, and the skins of the two birds passed into the 

 possession of Mr. Fuller-Maitland. The Messrs. Matthews 

 record that 'In the month of November, 1841, a Honey 

 Buzzard was taken in a very extraordinary manner near 

 Oxford. It had forced its head into a hole in the ground, 

 probably in search of a wasp^s nest, and becoming* by some 

 means entangled, was captured by a countiyman before 

 it could extricate itself."* [Zoologist, p. 2596.) Mr. Thomas 

 Prater, in a note dated the 23rd September, 1848, stated that 

 one had been shot near Woodstock a short time since (ii., 

 p. 2297). Two Honey Buzzards were shot in Shabbington 

 Woods about the 23rd September, 1881, one of which was 

 preserved by Mr. W. C. Darbey, who took from its throat 

 some wasps, and founfl lai'vae of the same in the stomach. 

 These woods are just inside Buckinghamshire, but they 



