HONEY-BUZZARD. 69 



PERNIS APIVORUS. 



HONEY-BUZZARD. 



(Plate 3.) 



Accipiter buteo apivorus, Briss. Orn. i. p. 410 (1760). 



Falco apivorus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 130 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum— 



{Niiumann), {Temminck), (Cinier), (Bonaparte), (Sharpe), &c. 

 Falco tachardus, Daud. Traite d'Orn. ii. p. 164 (1800, ex Lev.). 

 Falco poliorynchos, Beckst. Orn. Taschenb. i. p. 19, pis. 3, 4, 5 (1802). 

 Buteo tachai-dus {Baud.), VieiU. N. Diet. d'Hist. Kat. iv. p. 479 (1816). 

 Buteo apivorus (Linn.), VieiU. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat, iv. p. 479 (1816). 

 Aquila variabilis, Koch, Sijst, haier. Zool. p. 115 (1816). 

 Pernis apivorus (Linn.), Cuv. Heijne An. i.p. 323 (1817). 

 Accipiter lacertarius. Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 359 (1820). 

 Pernis communis. Less. Traite d'Orn. p. 75 (1831). 

 Pernis apium, Brehm, Viig. Deutschl. p. 46 (1831). 

 Pernis vesparum, Brehm, Vog. Devtsehl. p. 47 (1831). 

 Pernis tachardus (Daud.), Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 20 (1869). 



The Honey-Buzzard was formerly a regular summer visitant to this 

 country, breeding in most of the counties of England and Wales, where 

 the woods were large enough to afford it a secure retreat for its nest. In 

 Scotland and in Ireland the information we have is very meagre; but it 

 appears to have formerly bred in both these countries^ where it has now, as 

 well as in England, become a rare summer visitor. It is also occasionally 

 seen on the autumn migration. It is a great pity that such an extremely 

 handsome and entirely harmless bird should be on the vei'ge of extermina- 

 tion in our country. In addition to the persecutions of the gamekeepers, 

 who have not yet learnt to distinguish between useful and harmful birds of 

 prey, it is much sought after by collectors, both for its skin and for its 

 remarkably handsome eggs. In spite, however, of all its enemies, it still 

 yearly breeds in the New Forest and some other parts of England and 

 Scotland. 



On the continent the Honey-Buzzard, though nowhere very common, 

 breeds in some numbers north of latitude 45° up to the Arctic Circle. Its 

 occurrence further north rests upon very insufficient evidence. It appears 

 to be a very local bird ; but it breeds regularly in well- wooded districts in the 

 north of France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, S. Norway 

 and Sweden, and Russia. Eastwards its breeding-range appears to be 

 comparatively little known. Pallas records it from Southern Siberia; and 

 my Siberian collector has sent me a skin from Krasnoyarsk. Taczanowski 

 records an example without a crest from Lake Baikal ; two examples from 

 Japan are mentioned by Temminck and Schlegel as undistinguishable from 



