FALCONIDJE. 



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 re- 

 sembles 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 nymphse of wasps ; for in the 

 nest we found the combs of wasp's 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 



