HONEY-BUZZARDS SPARROW-HAWKS. 125 



is worthy of notice. The pine plantations of that 

 nobleman are very grand and extensive indeed. 



XLIIL 



A PAIR of honey-buzzards, buteo apivorus, sive 

 vespivorus, Raii, built them a large shallow nest, 

 composed of twigs, and lined with dead beechen 

 leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the middle 

 of Selborne Hanger, in the summer of 1780. In 

 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 bloody zone. 



The hen bird was shot, and answered exactly to 

 Mr. Ray's description of that species : had a black 

 cere, short thick legs, and a long tail. When on 

 the wing, this species may be easily distinguished 

 from the common buzzard, by its hawk-like appear- 

 ance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer 

 tail. This specimen contained in its craw some 

 limbs of frogs, and many grey snails without shells. 

 The irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beau- 

 tiful bright yellow colour. 



About the tenth of July in the same summer, a 

 pair of sparrow-hawks bred in an old crow's nest 

 on a low beech in the same Hanger ; and as their 

 brood, which was numerous, began to grow up, 

 became so daring and ravenous, that they were 

 a terror to all the dames in the village that had 

 chickens or ducklings under their care. A boy 



