LETTER XCIII. 

 To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



A PAIR of honey-buzzards — Buteo apivorus, Linn., 

 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 situa- 

 tion, and brought down an Q^g, the only one in the 

 nest, which had been sat on for some time, and con- 

 tained the embryo of a young bird. The ^gg 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 appearance, 

 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 beautiful bright yel- 

 low colour. 



About the loth of July in the same summer a pair 

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