more than the old ones. In both sexes the ashy greyish tinge on the head (that is, the clear bluish 

 ashy head in the male, and the ashy brown on the lores and region round the eye in the female) appears 

 to indicate full maturity. The moult appears to take place in July and August, as specimens shot late 

 in August or in September are in very clean and fresh plumage. 



The range of the Honey-Buzzard, the only representative of this distinct group we have in 

 Europe, appears to be confined nearly to the Western Palsearctic Region, where, during the 

 summer season, it inhabits the northern and central districts, and, so soon as the cold weather 

 begins to set in, migrates southwards, being found in Africa during the winter. A very gipsy 

 amongst birds, it appears to be found almost everywhere in suitable localities, though nowhere 

 very numerous. 



In Great Britain it used formerly to breed in several localities ; but of late years its eggs 

 have been so eagerly sought after that it has become exceedingly rare. Professor Newton, in 

 the new edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' refers to several recorded instances of its having 

 been found nesting in England previous to 1841, and adds that since then it has been met with 

 breeding in Northumberland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Northamptonshire, as well as the 

 New Forest, where it certainly bred within the last few years, and may yet be met with unless 

 exterminated by over-zealous collectors and by gamekeepers, who, knowing the high prices 

 paid for its eggs, use every endeavour to procure them. Mr. J. Gatcombe informs me that 

 it still visits Devonshire occasionally. The last he saw was obtained about two years ago ; but 

 it was too much decayed to be preserved, as, not knowing its rarity, the bird-stuffer had let it 

 get too stale. Speaking of its occurrence in Somersetshire, Mr. Cecil Smith writes as follows : — 

 " It can only be considered a rare, irregular straggler to this county. I know of only two having 

 been killed about here, one of the two by Mr. Esdaile's keeper, at Cothelston, about the 8th of 

 July, 1873 ; it is a young bird, probably of the year before. The other, a still younger bird, is in 

 the collection of the late Mr. Popham, of Bagborough, which is close under the Quantock hills. 

 I did not know for some time that this was really a Somerset specimen, or, indeed, even a 

 British one, till a friend wrote me a short time ago that Mr. Popham had himself caught it in a 

 trap baited with a piece of wasp's nest." In Scotland, according to Mr. Robert Gray, it has been 

 more frequently met with on the east than on the western side. He records many instances of 

 its occurrence, chiefly during the autumn ; but two, he says, were shot, curiously enough, in the 

 winter season, in the months of January and February, and it has twice been recorded as having 

 nested in Aberdeenshire. Thompson speaks of it as being a very rare summer visitant to Ireland, 

 and he only refers to four instances of its occurrence there. 



In Scandinavia it is generally distributed in the central and southern districts, and ranges 

 far north, especially on the Swedish side. Mr. Collett says that in the south-eastern lowlands of 

 Norway it is at times very numerous, but does not appear to range above the Dovre. In the 

 southern-coast districts, as, for instance, in Smaalehnene and near the Christiania fjord, it is very 

 common in some seasons. In Christiansands Stift it is commonly found up to Nedenses, but is 

 only sparingly scattered along the west coast, and has been met with at Bergen and on the 

 Nordfjord. In the interior it has been found breeding in Valders, the Gudbrandsdale, and 

 Osterdale. In Sweden it is generally distributed throughout the country in suitable localities as 

 far north as the Lapland frontier ; for Nilson says that Mr. von Seth took its eggs on the Lulea 



