Mr. Selbt's Account of Two Rare British Birds. 273 



No. XI. — An Account of Two rare British Birds. By Prideaux John 



Selby, Esq. 



Read, May 21, 1832. 



The accompanying drawings* are faithful portraits of two rare British 

 birds, both of which I was so fortunate as to receive in the flesh. The 

 first to which I direct your attention, is the beautiful variety of the 

 Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorusj, one of the rarest of the British Fal- 

 conida?. This bird was killed early in October, 1831, at Cheswick, in 

 North Durham, which place is situated between the turnpike and the 

 sea, about four miles to the south of Berwick. It had been observed 

 to haunt a grove adjoining the residence of John Donaldson, Esq., 

 for two or three evenings in succession, and was shot in the same, when 

 at roost, by his servant ; and I may add, as a curious coincidence, that 

 about the same time G. T. Fox, Esq., of Durham, communicated to 

 me the capture of another specimen near that city. The principal and 

 striking variation in this individual, from the usual plumage, consists in 

 the great mass of white ahout the head and neck, but other differences, 

 as compared with the descriptions of authors, are also apparent. Upon 

 dissection it proved a male, and though in beautiful plumage, was ra- 

 ther poor in condition, and very different from the state of that killed 

 at Thrunton, and described by the Hon. H. T. Liddell, in the first 

 volume of the Transactions of the Societi/.i The following is a correct 

 description taken from the bird before dissection : — Bill, black ; the 

 cere and basal part of both mandibles, Dutch orange ; space between 

 the bill and eyes, covered with small, close set feathers, of a clove brown 



* The Drawings were presented to the Society by Mr. Sei.by, and are preserved in 

 their collection, 

 f Vol. i. p. 3. 



