202 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



suppose them to pass the Winter in a dor- 

 pant state in this country concealed in 

 caverns or other hiding places sufficiently 

 guarded from the extreme cold of our Winter 

 to preserve their life, and that at the ap- 

 proach of Spring they revive from their tor- 

 pid state and reassume their usual powers 

 of action, it will entirely remove the first 

 difficulty, arising from the storms and tem- 

 pests they are liable to meet with in their 

 passage ; but how are we to get over the 

 still greater difficulty of their revivification 

 from their torpid state ? What degree of 

 warmth in the temperature of the air is 

 necessary to produce that effect, and how 

 it operates on the functions of animal life, 

 are questions not easily answered. 



How could Mr. White suppose that Ray 

 named this species the honey buzzard be- 

 cause it fed on honey, when he not only 

 named it in Latin huteo apivorus et vespi- 

 vorous, but expressly says, that '* it feeds 

 on insects, and brings up its young with 

 the maggots or nymphs of wasps ?" 



That birds of prey, when in want of their 



