THE HONEY BUZZARD. 137 



The honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus) is of 

 course here, as everywhere else, a scarce bird; 

 but decidedly less so than either the kite or the 

 common buzzard. Being now* only an acci- 

 dental visitor from the southern and south-eastern 

 parts of the continent, and generally during the 

 latter portion of the summer and autumn, it has 

 escaped the exterminating process which has so 

 long been in force against all our indigenous birds 

 of prey, and I may say that a year seldom elapses 

 without the occurrence of a specimen in this 

 county. I had once an opportunity of observing 

 the honey buzzard in the wild state ; it was in 

 the month of August, 1843, when riding through 

 Charlton Forest, which extends over a consider- 

 able portion of the Downs to the north of Good- 

 wood. Here the character of the country is very 

 different from that of the weald. In the latter the 

 oak is predominant, and the surface of the ground 

 is covered with dense thickets of underwood, 

 chiefly composed of the same tree mingled with 

 masses of blackthorn and hazel, while in the more 



* White of Selborne tells us that a pair of honey buz- 

 zards built their nest, during the summer of 1780, on a 

 tall, slender beech tree in a hanger near his residence. I 

 have not been able to discover that it has ever bred in 

 Sussex, or in the adjoining county of Hampshire, since 

 that period. 



