70 BRITISH BIRDS. 



European birds ; and Pere David obtained it in North China. On migration 

 it passes through Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, the whole of North Africa, 

 and Turkestan. It winters in West Africa, occasionally wandering as far as 

 South Africa; and in the British Museum is a specimen from Madagascar. 

 In the Oriental Region a very closely allied form (P. ptilorhynchus) occurs, 

 differing principally in having a conspicuous crest. In Java these crests 

 appear to attain their greatest development, measuring 3'7 inch in length. 

 In Sumatra the longest measurement of the crest given is 2*3, and in 

 Malacca 2'0 inch ; in India none have been recorded with the crest longer 

 than 1'9, whilst in Tenasserim Hume and Davison say that the crests are 

 only incipient. Some ornithologists have referred the Siberian, Japanese, 

 and Chinese birds to this species ; but, until examples with crests have been 

 obtained from these localities, we can scarcely accept this determination. 

 A more rational explanation of these curious facts appears to me to be that 

 our Honey-Buzzard ranges as far east as Japan, and that the Eastern birds 

 winter in India and the Siamese peninsula, occasionally remain there, 

 and interbreed with the southern species P. ptilorhynchus, thus producing 

 the intermediate forms. 



Although the Honey-Buzzard is a tolerably common bird in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Archangel, still it is one that arrives at its breeding- quarters 

 very late. This late arrival is probably caused, not from the bird's sus- 

 ceptibility to cold, but from the late appearance of those insects on which it 

 principally feeds. From the middle of April to the middle of May it passes 

 Gibraltar, Malta, and the Bosphorus in large flocks, returning on its 

 southern passage in September and October, in smaller parties. Although 

 the Honey-Buzzard is not a shy bird, still it is one that is very seldom seen. 

 As a rule it does not seek its food upon the wing. During my visit to 

 Brunswick and Pomerania, although the bird had certainly arrived, and in 

 the latter country had begun to breed, we only once obtained a sight of it, 

 sailing over a forest somewhat in the manner of a Buzzard. In the late 

 summer months its principal food is wasps and their larvae ; and it will spend 

 hours on some obscure bank on the outskirts of the forest scratching down 

 to the nest and picking the grubs out of the comb. Besides wasps and bees 

 and their larvae, the Honey-Buzzard feeds upon grasshoppers and other 

 insects, and eats frogs, lizards, and mice, and occasionally earthworms and 

 small birds. Sachse says that this bird, besides the nest in which it lays 

 its eggs, frequently makes use of some old nest in the neighbourhood, 

 to which it retires to eat its food ; and he suggests that these nests may 

 also be used as a sort of storehouse, as he has found in them half- eaten 

 birds, mice, &c. It is almost as much mobbed by small birds as the Cuckoo 

 is, partly in consequence of which it has obtained the reputation of robbing 

 their nests a reputation which it occasionally deserves. In autumn, when 

 short of food, it is said to eat berries and small fruits. 



