NATURAL HISTORY 



The seat of the Earl of Eglintoun, near Glasgow, is 

 worthy of notice. The pine plantations of that noble- 

 man are very grand and extensive indeed. 



I am. &c. 



LETTER XLIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



A PAIR of honey buzzards (Buteo apivorus sive vespivo- 

 rus, RAII), built them a large shallow nest, composed 

 of twigs and lined with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall 

 slender beech near the 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 bloody zone. 



The hen bird was shot, and answered exactly to 

 Mr. Ray's description of that species ; had a black 

 cere, short thick legs, and a long tail. When on the 

 wing this species may be easily distinguished from the 

 common buzzard by its hawk-like appearance, small 

 head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This speci- 

 men contained in its craw some limbs of frogs and 

 many gray snails without shells. The irides of the eyes 

 of this bird were of a beautiful bright yellow colour. 



About the 10th of July in the same summer a pair 

 of sparrow hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low 

 beech in the same Hanger ; and as their brood, which 

 was numerous, began to grow up, became so daring 

 and ravenous, that they were a terror to all the dames 



