Genus PERNIS. 



Accvpiter apud Brisson, Orn. i. p. 410 (1760). 



Falco apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 130 (1766). 



Buteo apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. iv. p. 479 (1816). 



Aquila apud Koch, Baier. Zool. i. p. 115 (1816). 



Pernis, Cuvier, Regne Aniin. i. p. 322 (1817). 



Pteroclialinus apud Gloger, fide Sharpe, Cat. Accipitr. Brit. Mus. p. 343 (1874). 



The Honey-Buzzards, of which three species are known, inhabit the Palaearctic, Ethiopian, and 

 Oriental Regions, one species only being found in the Western Palaearctic Region. They are 

 somewhat heavy and slow in their movements, and quite as destitute of courage as the common 

 Buzzard: thus they do not pursue and catch birds and mammals, but feed on reptiles and 

 insects, especially the latter; and they are said also to plunder other birds' nests of their 

 contents, both eggs and young birds. They feed with avidity on the larvae of wasps and bees, 

 and will dig out the nests and pick the grubs out, devouring also the honey. 



They breed rather late in the season, either making use of a deserted nest or else con- 

 structing one for themselves, and invariably garnish it with green leaves. Their eggs are 

 roundish, and usually very richly coloured, being so closely blotched on a yellowish-brown 

 ground with reddish brown or fox-red as to appear almost entirely of those colours. 



As a rule, they are silent birds, only occasionally uttering a shrill cry as they circle over 

 head at a considerable altitude. 



Pernis apivorus, the type of the genus, has the bill rather weak, decurved from the base, 

 cere large, cutting-edge of the upper mandible nearly straight ; nostrils oblong, oblique, lores 

 covered with small scale-like feathers ; wings long and broad, the first quill shorter than the 

 sixth, the second about equal to the fifth, the third and fourth longest ; tail long, nearly even ; 

 tarsus short, feathered on the upper part and reticulated on the lower half; toes moderately 

 strong, claws strong, slightly curved, acute. 



An American species, the only representative of the Nearctic and Neotropical genus 

 Manoides, Elanoides furcatus (L.), has been inserted in the British list ; but it seems to me 

 that it is rather premature to include it, and until I can examine an undoubted British-killed 

 example I shall continue to doubt its occurrence within the limits of the Western Palaearctic 

 Region. According to Professor Newton (in Yarr. Brit. B. i. pp. 103-105) one was recorded by 

 the late Dr. Walker as having occurred at Ballachulish in 1772, and a second example is said 

 by the late Mr. Fothergill to have been caught on the 6th September 1805, near Hawes, in 

 Wensleydale, Yorkshire, but it subsequently escaped. Four more occurrences are on record, 

 but they rest on insufficient evidence. 



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