Birds. 439 



Wishing to have some little additional information respecting the 

 position and structure of the nest, T again wrote to Mr. Potts, and 

 learned from him that it was built in an oak tree, rather a large one, 

 near the middle of the wood, and rested on two large arms which grew 

 out from the trunk, and was built with sticks, some of them as thick 

 as his finger, the greatest part without leaves, but there were a few 

 with the leaves on entwined with the others, and there were a few 

 small bits with the leaves on in the nest, just the leafy ends of the oak 

 branches. He further describes the nest as nearly flat (White's nest 

 was a large shallow nest), but rather hollow where they lay their eggs, 

 and adds that his brother shot a honey-buzzard off its nest in the 

 same wood about ten years ago. That nest was built between three 

 large arms just at the top of the trunk, and he surmises that the 

 nests are generally so placed that the young ones may walk in and out 

 along the arms before they are fledged. 



I had particularly asked whether boughs or twigs with the leaves 

 on formed part of the materials of which the nest was constructed, in 

 order to ascertain whether it resembled the nest near Henley in that 

 peculiarity, if it should be so termed, for the presence of boughs with 

 the leaves on, merely proves that the honey-buzzard, like the rook, 

 does not use dead materials only in constructing its nest. Live 

 boughs plucked at the season at which these nests were built, would 

 necessarily be clothed with leaves. June seems to be the usual sea- 

 son of nidification in this country. White's nest was robbed in the 

 middle of June ; the nest at Stoneleigh was not completed when the 

 birds were shot, about the 10th of June. The nest near Henley con- 

 tained eggs in the early part of July, and the young birds in the nest 

 mentioned by Willughby were fed with the nymphae of wasps, which 

 would not be obtained before the end of July. And, as far as can be 

 collected from the recorded instances, there seems to be reason for 

 supposing that the number of eggs laid by the honey-buzzard is be- 

 low the number usually laid by birds of prey of corresponding size. 

 In the instance mentioned by White, the single egg found in the nest 

 contained the embryo of a young bird. The nest mentioned by Pen- 

 nant contained two eggs, and the nest mentioned by Willughby (I 

 am availing myself of the information collected by Mr. Yarrell), con- 

 tained two young birds. The nest near Henley contained two eggs 

 only, and the state of the eggs indicated that the bird had accom- 

 plished full one half of her period of incubation, and had consequently 

 laid her complement. Of these eggs, one was inferior in size to the 

 other, less strongly marked, and much more pointed at the smaller 



