46 HONEY BUZZARD. 



young male birds shot on the 26th. of August, near Hexham. 

 These five last were procured in the year 1841. The parents 

 of the latter two were also frequently seen. One near Twizel ; 

 one at Cheswick, near Berwick-upon-Tweed. In Sussex, A. 

 E. Knox, Esq., in his pleasant 'Ornithological Kambles,' says 

 that though rare, a few specimens have been met with one 

 in Charlton Forest; one or two near Arundel; one shot in 

 September, in the year 1845, on Poynings Common ; another 

 obtained in the autumn of 1841, between Henfield and 

 Horsham; and another shot in the forest of St. Leonard, 

 by the gamekeeper of Aldridge, Esq. Others in Norfolk, 

 Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Worcestershire, and, though very 

 rarely, in Cumberland, where it has been said to have bred 

 in the woods near Lowther. One was taken, and one shot 

 near Yarmouth, in the county of Norfolk, in September, 

 1841; another at Honingham; one at G-awdy Hall Wood, 

 near Harleston; and one at Horning, in 1841, in the same 

 county. One in Kent, in the parish of Lydd; a few others 

 near Tunbridge Wells; two pairs in Warwickshire, near 

 Stoneleigh Abbey, and one in Suffolk. In Oxfordshire, a few 

 have been recorded by my friend, (if after the lapse of so 

 many years, 'eheu fugaces,' I may still call him so,) the 

 Rev. A. Matthews, of Weston-on-the-Green. One of them he 

 describes as having been taken in the following singular 

 manner: It had forced its head into a hole in the ground, 

 probably in search of a wasp's nest, and becoming by some 

 means entangled, was captured by a countryman before it 

 could extricate itself. 



In Scotland, three or four in Berwickshire, one of them 

 about the month of June, 1845. 



The Honey Buzzard frequents woods, and especially those 

 in which water is to be met with. 



The flight of this bird is, like that which is characteristic 

 of others of the smaller species of the Hawk kind, silent and 

 swift, a gliding through the air without apparent effort, and 

 for the most part low. It flies generally for only a short 

 distance, from tree to tree. When on the ground, it has been 

 noticed by several authors, to run with great rapidity, some- 

 what in the way that a pheasant does. It often remains for 

 hours together, on some solitary tree from which a good look 

 out can be kept, and at such times has been observed to erect 

 the feathers of the head into a sort of crest, indicative, perhaps, 

 either of attention or sleep. 



