Birds. 5319 



trees about half a mile from Greiz, usually in company with the long- 

 tailed tit and golden-crested regulus. It was a species well known to 

 the country people, and, as I found on inquiry, existed in great num- 

 bers in all the surrounding woods, preferring, however, those com- 

 posed of fir trees. Like its congeners, it was active and sprightly in 

 the extreme, but by no means shared their familiarity, as I never suc- 

 ceeded in approaching nearer to it than ten or a dozen yards. In 

 this district it remains the whole year. The nests, however, are but 

 seldom found. 



Henry Smurthwaite. 

 October 5, 1856. 



Occurrence of the Honey Buzzard near Penzance. — A third example of the honey 

 buzzard has been captured, during the last week, in Cornwall, and within a couple of 

 miles westward of Penzance, in a wooded valley. It has altogether the appearance 

 of being a bird of the year, from the dark colour of the iris, the shortness of the tail- 

 feathers, the shorter and straighter character of the claws than any I have yet seen, 

 and from the yellow colour pervading the base of the lower mandible, and the skin 

 forming the boundaries of the gape. The whole of the head, cheeks (including the 

 small, closely-set feathers between the beak and eye), and the upper plumage is of a 

 uniform dark chocolate-brown; this colour is a little broken on the nape of the neck. 

 The under parts from the throat to the vent is bright rufous-brown, lighter in 

 tone than the upper parts, each feather having a very well-defined dark line down 

 the shaft ; but there is not the slightest appearance of transverse bars, spots, or 

 broken patches of white on the breast or belly ; the throat is rather lighter than 

 the rest, and here the centre dark line is of course more distinct and defined. 

 The colour of the iris is reddish brown, giving indications of becoming yellow at a 

 more mature age. Legs bright yellow. The three distinct straight bars, at intervals 

 of about three inches, across the under surface of the tail seems to be another charac- 

 ter peculiar to this species, which neither the common buzzard nor the rough-legged 

 buzzard possess. These bars, being very well developed in the present specimen, as 

 well as in those of a maturer age that I have examined, may be regarded as a perma- 

 nent character of the genus Pernis. This bird was observed for some days in the 

 valley, and was marked at last to the top of a tree adjoining an orchard. From this 

 spot the bird made a sudden stoop at a cat on a bank. The conflict continued 

 vigorously for a few minutes, the honey buzzard attacking the cat in the style of a 

 fighting cock, and the cat parrying off each assault with her paws, and with a tail aud 

 crest looking as formidable as in any caterwauling encounter on a house-top. — 

 Edward Hearle Rodd ; Penzance, October 20, 1856. 



Occurrence of the Rose-coloured Pastor and Hoopoe in Essex. — The rose-coloured 

 pastor was shot at Street-hall, in Essex, about the middle of the mouth of September 

 last. It is a very fine specimen, with a good crest, and the beautiful rose-colour on 

 the back, &c, very pure. The hoopoe was shot at Ashdon, near Saffron Walden, 

 about a week afterwards. Both these birds are at Mr. Travis's bird-stuffer, Saffron 



