130 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XLIII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



PAIR of honey buzzards, Buteo apivorus sivc 

 vespivorus, RAH, built them a large shallow 

 nest, composed of twigs and lined with dead 

 beech en 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 appearance, small head, wings not so blunt, 

 and longer tail. This specimen contained in its craw some 

 limbs of frogs and many gray snails without shells. The 

 irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beautiful bright 

 yellow colour. 



About the 10th 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 nume- 

 rous, 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 climbed 

 the tree, and found the young so fledged that they alJ 

 escaped from him ; but discovered that a good house had 

 been kept : the larder was well stored with provisions ; for 

 he brought down a young blackbird, jay, and house-martin, 



