Birds. 



8159 



equally with respect to what has been, what now is, and whall shall 

 be hereafter. 



S. P. Saville. 



Dover House, Cambridge, 

 July 14, 1862. 



Note on the Breeding of the Honey Buzzard in the New Forest. — I took a nest of 

 two eggs of this rare bird on the 21st of June, 1859, and the female bird was shot as 

 she rose from the nest. The nest was placed in a fork of an oak tree, not more than 

 twenty-five or thirty feet from the ground. I was informed by the gamekeeper that, 

 two or three years before, the nest was a crow's, but on his shooting the rightful owner 

 a pair of buzzards took to the nest, and had repaired it from year to year since. At 

 the time I took the eggs the bottom part appeared very old, but had been repaired 

 and lined with fresh green leaves of oak and beech. The old bird, on leaving the 

 nest, went off very much in the style of a heron, and with the same heavy flapping 

 sort of flight. On the hen bird being shot, the male, who was flying over the trees in 

 the immediate neighbourhood, rose to a great height in the air, and kept hovering 

 and flying round in circles, uttering a loud note similar to the common buzzard, but 

 somewhat hoarser. I obtained another pair of eggs in the same month and year. 

 Last year I obtained another pair, and this year I have five eggs, three from one 

 nest, and two from the other. The three eggs were taken at intervals of three days 

 between each; the first, a large and fine coloured, though rather pale egg, was takeu 

 on the 7th of June; the next, a smaller and darker egg, on the 10th ; and the third, 

 a very small and peculiarly coloured egg, on the 13th. The nest of two eggs were taken 

 on the 17th of June, and are very dark and similar in shape to those of the peregrine; 

 and since my return home Mr. J. R. Wise has obtained two pairs of eggs, which he 

 has sent me, together with an egg of the merlin, to blow for him. — W. Farren ; 

 Cambridge. 



Note on the Breeding of the Merlin in the New Forest. — In 1859 I obtained a nest 

 of three eggs, which I supposed to be the merlin's. From their size and colour, and 

 from their being taken on the top of a low pollard holly, Mr. F. Bond, to whom I 

 showed them, agreed with me in believing them to be the eggs of the merlin. In 

 1861 I obtained three or four nests of the same kind of eggs, and from similar 

 situations, but could get no proof till the present year, when, on the 19th of May, 

 I got a nest of three eggs, and shot the old male bird as he rose from the nest; thus 

 not only obtaining proof of the breeding of the merlin in the New Forest, but also 

 that the male bird takes his turn in sitting on the eggs. The eggs are very similar to 

 some small varieties of the kestrel's, but are not so highly coloured and are nearly 

 round : the nest was placed in a hole in a dead yew tree, and was composed of dead 

 sticks with some sprigs of heath. All the nests I have met with were placed on low 

 isolated trees, such as pollard hollies and hawthorns, and never in the thick-wooded 

 part. I may mention that from but one nest have I obtained more than three eggs, 

 and in that instance four eggs. This, I believe, is the first authentic instance of the 

 merlin breeding in the New Forest. That the merlin should build in holes of trees 

 has excited some surprise, as I believe it nests only on the ground in the North. — 

 W . Farren. 



