ffOtfE Y- BUZZARD. 



139 



sists of animals or birds, dead or living, with the exception of 

 the Kestrel, which preys with equal satisfaction on beetles ; 

 but there is one particular Hawk, called the Honey-Buzzard, 

 rather rare at present in England, whose favourite food is bees 

 and wasps (and not the honey of the former, as has been 

 erroneously supposed from its name), which it devours greedily, 

 apparently without ever suffering from their stings. There 

 can be no longer any doubt as to the truth, one having been 

 shot in the parish of Stoke Nayland, in Suffolk, by a person 

 who saw it first on the ground near several wasps' nests, and 

 who, on dissecting it, found both in its craw and stomach a 



The Honey-Buzzard. 



quantity of wasps and their grubs, with a few small beetles. 

 As nobody has had the good fortune to see one of these birds 

 in the act of feeding, it is impossible to ascertain how it makes 

 its way without being injured into the interior of the wasps' 

 nest, which it must do in order to get at the grubs, which are 

 concealed in the very middle of the combs. The head and 

 throat are surrounded with a clothing of remarkably thick and 

 rather stiff feathers, which may probably be intended as a pro- 

 tection. From the date named, October 12, when this bird 



