182 Mr. G. T. Fox's Notice of some rare Birds. 



Sabine's Snipe, Richard's Pipit, and Emberiza calcarata of Vigors, 

 the Glossy Ibis of Selby,* and the Red-crested Duck of Yarrfll. 



I am induced to make these prefatory remarks, to account for my 

 calling to the notice of the Society the recent capture in this neighbour- 

 hood, of some rare Birds, a specimen of the first of which (the Honey 

 Buzzard) having been described already in our Transactions, vol. i., 

 page 3, by the Hon. H. T. Liddell, as captured in Northumberland, in 

 1829, tends to illustrate the assertion, that no sooner is a notice pro- 

 mulgated by the press, of any rare species being taken, than we shortly 

 hear of other specimens in succession. 



In the beginning of September of this year (1831), a Bird was killed 

 by the gamekeeper of John Gregson, Esq., of Durham, at Burdon, in 

 that county, where he had observed it hovering about for nearly a week. 

 It was sent to me as an unknown species, and on examination I iden- 

 tified it, by means of Temminck's description, as the young of the 

 Honey Buzzard. It has been placed in the excellent collection of Bri- 

 tish Birds, belonging to Walter Scruton, Esq., of this city, after being 

 stuffed by Mr. Proctor. The latter has furnished me with the measure- 

 ments and some particulars of the following description. 



Length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, 22 inches ; 

 breadth of the extended wings, 4 feet 1 inch ; weight 19 ounces : 

 in poor condition and stomach almost empty, the contents being prin- 

 cipally the bark of trees. 



Bill, black, yellow at the base of the lower mandible ; cere, bright 

 yellow ; iris, hazel ; crown, flat ; plumage of the head, throat, neck, 

 and breast, light brown ; the shaft of each feather, darker ; fore- 

 head or space behind the bill, white ; eyes surrounded by small feathers 

 like scales, darker than the rest of the head ; auriculars, rather lighter ; 

 the whole of the upper plumage, dark brown, each feather being half 

 pure white at its inner extremity. Tail, light brown above, with four 

 darker bands, and with three narrower ones more faint in the intervals 

 between the three last, and one between the first and second band, the 

 feathers mottled in their inner half with white. Tail coverts above and 

 * An Ibis of this species has been recently killed near Sunderland. 



