48 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



dark-coloured, a state of plumage which is accurately given in 

 plate 17, vol. i., of Sir William Jardine's " British Birds." 



In January, 1866, a "fine adult specimen "(1) was shot in the 

 island of Raasay, in Orkney. 



I believe that some ornithologists now hold the opinion that 

 this bird and the Sancti Johannis of American authors are identi- 

 cal, the latter being that adult stage in which the species has not 

 yet been found in this country. Mr Macgillivray, however, in his 

 "Manual of British Ornithology," (London, 1840), states that 

 " one shot in Dumfriesshire in March, 1840, had a great number 

 of young feathers of a blackish brown colour, and would have 

 been entirely of that tint had the moult been completed." 



THE HONEY BUZZARD. 

 PERN IS APIVORUS. 



LIKE the preceding species, the Honey Buzzard is found much 

 more frequently in the east of Scotland than in the west. A speci- 

 men was shot at Chatelherault, near Hamilton, in the autumn of 

 1831, but so far as I can ascertain no other instance of its occurrence 

 can be cited between that year and 1863, when one was trapped at 

 Muirkirk, in Ayrshire, in the month of September. Another a 

 young male was shot at the same place about twelve months 

 afterwards, and exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh by Dr J. A. Smith, to whom I am indebted 

 for a notice of the circumstance. 



In the eastern counties, principally in the autumn season, in 

 localities ranging from Berwick to Shetland, specimens have 

 been procured at intervals since the time of Don, in whose list 

 the species is mentioned. Lord Binning informs me that an 

 adult male in perfect plumage was shot at Tyninghame in East 

 Lothian in May, 1856, and is now in the Earl of Haddington's 

 collection. Three specimens had previously been obtained in the 

 same county, and examined by Mr Archibald Hepburn. In 1862 

 another was shot by Mr Alexander Henderson at Broxmouth near 

 Dunbar, and about two years afterwards several more were shot on 

 Beil estate in the winter season (January and February, 1864), 

 two of which I saw in the collection of the late Dr Nelson of 



