HONEY BUZZARD. 101 



middle of Selborne Hanger, in the summer of 1780. In 

 the middle of the month of June, a bold boy climbed this 

 tree, though standing on so steep and dizzy a situation, and 

 brought down an egg, the only one in the nest, which 

 had been sat on for some time and contained the embryo of 

 a young bird. The egg was smaller, and not so round as 

 those of the Common Buzzard ; was dotted at each end 

 with small red spots, and surrounded in the middle with a 

 broad blood-red zone." Pennant mentions an instance of a 

 Honey Buzzard that was shot on her nest, which contained 

 two eggs blotched over with two shades of red, something 

 darker than those of the Kestrel. The eggs of the Honey 

 Buzzard are rare : I have only seen three or four speci- 

 mens, one of which answered to the description given by 

 White, the colouring matter being confined to a broad 

 band round the middle. One specimen in my collection 

 resembles those mentioned by Pennant, being mottled 

 nearly all over with two shades of orange brown : long 

 diameter, two inches one line; transverse diameter, one 

 inch nine lines. Willughby says, the Honey Buzzard 

 builds its nest of small twigs, lining it with wool, and 

 adds, " We saw one that made use of an old Kite's nest 

 to breed in, and that fed its young with the nymphae of 

 wasps ; for in the nest we found the combs of wasps' nests, 

 and in the stomach of the young the limbs and fragments 

 of wasp -maggots. There were in the nest but two young 

 ones, covered with a white down, spotted with black. 

 Their feet were of a pale yellow ; their bills between 

 the nostrils and the head, white ; their craws large, in 

 which were lizards, frogs, &c. In the crop of one of 

 them we found two lizards entire, with their heads lying 

 towards the bird's mouth, as if they sought to creep out." 

 J. P. Wilmot, Esq., has supplied an interesting commu- 

 nication in the Zoologist, vol. ii. page 237, on the breeding 



