218 YEBTEBR ATES. 



large sticks, and lines it with wool, hair, or other soft substances, 

 and sometimes takes possession of a deserted crow's nest, which 

 it enlarges, and makes it fit for accommodating her future family 

 of young buzzards. She deposits two or three eggs ; the number 

 seldom amounts to four : they exceed the eggs of a hen a little in 

 size ; the color is a dirty white, a little greenish, and most com- 

 monly spotted with rust-color, chiefly at the larger end. The 

 young, when in the nest, are covered with a yellowish down. In 

 the middle of July they begin to perch upon bushes, when they 

 utter a cry shrill and plaintive. They accompany the old birds 

 some time after quitting the nest. This is very uncommoil with 

 birds of prey, which at a very early period show that parental 

 afiection is extinct in their bosom, and drive off their offspring 

 from them with apparent disgust as soon as they are fledged and 

 able to provide for themselves. 



The Honey Buzzard is found in the warmer parts of 

 Europe, and in Asia, seldom visiting our shores. Its food does 

 not consist of honey, as its name might seem to indicate, but of 

 bees, wasps, and their larvae. In the stomach of one that was shot 

 in Scotland, a great number of bees and grubs were found, but 

 no honey or wax. It does not, however, refuse small quadrupeds, 

 or sometimes small birds, if pressed by hunger. It is a bird of 

 passage, leaving Europe at the commencement of winter. Its 

 nest is built in high trees, and its eggs are two or three in number, 

 grey, spotted with red at one end, and surrounded with a red 

 band. Its length is about two feet, and the expanse of its wings 

 fifty-two inches. The third primary feather is the longest. 



The Kite is a native of almost all the countries of P]u 

 rope, and is found ia Siberia, Africa, and in some latitudes of 

 America. Many of those which breed in Europe retire into 

 Egypt and other hot latitudes, during the cold season. They are 

 partial to hilly and woody situations. The nest is built by the 

 female early in the spring : she places it in a fork of a large tree, 

 forming it of Sticks, and lining it with soft materials, such as 

 wool, hair, the inner bark of some tree, or bits of cloth. The 

 appearance of the Kite in the sky is singularly elegant, sailing 



