94 FALCONIDA. 
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 blood-red zone.” Pennant mentions an instance of a 
Honey Buzzard that was shot on her nest, which contained 
two eggs blotched over with two shades of red, something 
darker than those of the Kestrel. The eggs of the Honey 
Buzzard are rare: I have only seen three or four speci- 
mens, one of which answered to the description given by 
White, the colouring matter being confined to a broad band 
round the middle. One specimen in my collection re- 
sembles those mentioned by Pennant, bemg mottled nearly 
all over with two shades of orange brown: long diameter, 
two inches one line; transverse diameter, one inch nine 
lines. Willughby says, the Honey Buzzard builds its nest 
of small twigs, lining it with wool, and adds, “‘ We saw 
one that made use of an old Kite’s nest to breed in, and 
that fed its young with the nymphe of wasps; for in the 
nest we found the combs of wasp’s nests, and in the 
stomach of the young the limbs and fragments of wasp- 
maggots. ‘There were in the nest but two young ones, 
covered with a white down, spotted with black. Their 
feet were of a pale yellow ; their bills between the nostrils 
and the head, white; their craws large,—in which were 
lizards, frogs, &c. In the crop of one of them we found 
two lizards entire, with their heads lying towards the 
bird’s mouth, as if they sought to creep out.” 
J. P. Wilmot, Esq. has supplied an interesting commu- 
nication in the Zoologist, vol. il. page 237, on the breeding 
