BIRDS 



139. Sparrow-Hawk. Accipiter nisui {L\nn.) 

 Common and resident in spite of constant 



persecution. 



140. Kite. Milvus ictinus, Savigny. 

 Formerly well known and breeding in the 



Weald. After 1830 it was considered a rare 

 bird in the county, and Knox mentions only 

 two instances of its occurrence — once near 

 Brighton and once at Sidlcsham between the 

 years 1840-50. 



141. Honey-Buzzard. Pernis apivorus {Linn.) 

 There is no record of the honey-buzzard 



having ever bred in the county, though it is 

 highly probable that it has done so. Till 

 recently it regularly nested in the neighbour- 

 ing county of Hants as well as in other 

 southern counties. Coming to us generally 

 when the woods are in full leaf, and frequent- 

 ing for the most part densely wooded tracts, 

 the species is both inconspicuous, silent and 

 shy in its ways, so that it may even escape 

 the notice of the most watchful keeper. Knox 

 gives several instances of its capture, and also 

 charmingly describes the appearance of a 

 honey-buzzard which he saw in Charlton 

 Forest in the act of tearing out a wasps' nest. 

 There are two fine examples in the collection 

 of the late Mr. William Borrer. One of 

 these, killed at Poyning's Common, September, 

 1845, is of the creamy breasted type. I once 

 had the good fortune to obtain alive a bird of 

 this species, and must confess that it was by 

 far the most interesting pet I have ever 

 possessed. Only the very point of the wing 

 was injured when I shot it at Frostendon in 

 Suffolk, so I determined to try and save its 

 life. For more than a week it refused all 

 food, so that I feared it would soon die of 

 starvation. Little birds, frogs and insects 

 were offered in vain, and only as an experi- 

 ment did I force a French plum down its 

 throat, for that was the nearest approach to 

 honey at hand. To my surprise the bird 

 picked up and swallowed the next plum with 

 avidity, and from that moment I had no 

 trouble with the menu.^ From this date he 

 lived on French plums and their juice for a 

 month, when I managed to procure heather 

 honey regularly from Scotland, and principally 

 on this diet, varied with the contents of an 

 occasional wasps' nest, I kept him till the 

 end of winter. He was of a most amiable 

 and even gentle disposition, giving a loud and 

 long peevish scream as one approached, and 



1 As an instance of the extraordinary tastes of 

 this mild raptorial, it may be mentioned that the 

 late Lord Lilford fed his specimen for a long time 

 on rice pudding. 



would fly down and rest on my hand as I 

 carried him about the garden looking for bees 

 and wasps. These he would capture with 

 remarkable grace and certainty, his powers of 

 flight being soon quite restored. If I sat 

 reading a book under a tree he would never 

 go far away, but soon came flying back utter- 

 ing his peevish, whistling cry. I shall never 

 forget the first time we went to attack a 

 wasps' nest to which a farm boy was guiding 

 me. ' Where is it ? ' I said to the boy, but 

 before he gave answer the honey-buzzard 

 suddenly stretched his neck, and intently 

 watching a wasp that flew by cast itself into 

 the air and with great rapidity flew low and 

 straight to the ' bike,' about a hundred yards 

 distant and situated in a high bank. In a 

 moment the bird was suddenly transformed 

 from a listless, apathetic dullard to the most 

 energetic and business-like excavator. He 

 used his beak occasionally to pull aside a root 

 or other obstruction, but most of the work of 

 unearthing the nest was done with his feet. 

 Meanwhile the wasps in access of fury 

 swarmed all over him, and of these little tor- 

 mentors he seemed not to take the smallest 

 notice, a circumstance explained, as I after- 

 wards found out, by the fact that though the 

 wasps entered his plumage with their heads 

 and could even reach the skin, they neverthe- 

 less found it impossible to screw round their 

 meta-thorax and sting the bird owing to the 

 way in which he held his feathers and to the 

 strength and elasticity of the down. The 

 honey-buzzard swallowed grubs, comb and 

 full-grown wasps during his meal, and for 

 three days afterwards wasps still remained in 

 the plumage of the bird. This seemed to 

 cause the buzzard no inconvenience but rather 

 a pleasant source of supply, for I constantly 

 saw him during this time searching his plum- 

 age and abstract a wasp, which he at once 

 nipped and swallowed. 



142. Greenland Falcon. Fa/co candiians, 



J. F. Gmelin. 

 A female bird of this species was shot on 

 September 26, 1882, at Bullock's Hill, Bals- 

 dean near Lewes. It is now in Mr. Monk's 

 collection at Lewes (Gurney, Zoologist, 1883, 

 p. 80). . 



143. Gyr-Falcon. Fa/co gyrfa/co, Linn. 

 There is a fine adult specimen of the gyr- 



falcon in the Borrer collection. It is the 

 only Sussex specimen recorded, and was shot 

 in January, 1845, at Mayfield. 



144. Peregrine Falcon. Fa/co peregr'inus, 



Tunstall. 

 A regular visitor, appearing in almost e\ery 



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