HONEY BUZZARD. 213 



tion of the stomach, which was quite full, it was 

 found to contain a few of the larvae, and some 

 fragments of coleopterous insects ; several whitish 

 coloured hairy caterpillars ; the pupa of a butter- 

 fly, and also of the six-spot burnet moth, Zyycena 

 filipendul<B> together with some pieces of grass 

 which, it is presumed, were taken in with this 

 last named insect, it being on the stalks of grass 

 that the pupae of this species of Zygcena are 

 chiefly found."* 



All authors agree in making the Honey Buz- 

 zard breed on trees ; the number of eggs three or 

 four, small in proportion, and of a yellowish 

 white, blotched and spotted with brown. Mr 

 Gould says, " several instances of its breeding in 

 this country have come to our knowledge," and 

 again, it constructs a nest of twigs lined with wool 

 and other soft materials. The nest mentioned 

 by White was built on a tall slender beech; it 

 was large and shallow, composed of twigs, and 

 lined with dead beechen leaves. Willoughby says, 

 speaking of its nest, " We saw one that made use 

 of an old Kite's nest to breed in, and that it fed 

 its young with the nympha of wasps, for, in the 

 nest, we found the combs of wasps' nests, and in 

 the stomachs of the young, the limbs and frag- 

 ments of wasp maggots. In the nest there were 



* Mag. of Nat. Hist. vi. p. 447. 



