4 The Hon H. T. Liddell's Notice of the Falco Apivorus. 



species. His description is still more defective in omitting to notice par- 

 ticularly the distinguishing traits which have induced Cuvier to separate 

 the Honey Buzzard from the genus Falco, or Buteo, and to include it, 

 with some other foreign species possessing the same character, in his 

 genus, or division, Pernis. An attentive observer of these characteris- 

 tics will perceive, that, in many respects, the Honey Buzzard seems to 

 form a link between the rapacious and the insectivorous tribes. The 

 weakness of the bill and claws, the gape of the mouth, the flat head, 

 and large full eye set round with small and very close feathers, the ab- 

 sence of the projecting eyebrow, and of the notch in the upper mandi- 

 ble of the bill, conspicuous in the whole tribe of Falconidce, with the 

 pointed wings and long spreading tail, are all analogous conformations 

 with the tribes of the Cuckoo and Goatsucker. The specimen, which I 

 am now describing, differs from all the accounts I have met with, in 

 having all the under parts of a dark chocolate brown, with only a few 

 white bars under the wings. In other respects it nearly coincides with 

 the description in Mr. Seiby's work. The tail is very beautiful, long, 

 and spreading, with three distinct bars of dark brown, and the under side 

 of the quill feathers of the wings is also prettily streaked and shaded 

 with bars of dove-colour upon a light ground, terminated with a broad 

 bar of dark brown at the extremity of each feather. There is another 

 bar of the same colour narrower and less regular at the upper extremi- 

 ty, and this arrangement of colour is finely set off" by the deep chocolate 

 brown of the under coverts of the wings. The legs are remarkably 

 thick, and had somewhat of an oedematous, or gouty appearance, 

 which has gone off" as the skin has dried. It is decidedly an adult 

 specimen, and being in a state of moult has both old and young 

 feathers. When killed it was pursuing a wood pigeon, which, rush- 

 ing by, attracted the attention of the game-keeper. The bird was 

 excessively fat, so much so, that its grease ran from the holes pierced 

 by the shot, and rendered it a difficult task to preserve the skin 

 clean for stuffing, as it flowed down the blade of the knife and over the 

 hands of the operator. It was full of the larvae of wasps, and I observed 

 in the vicinity one or two wasp nests pendent on thorns, which might 



