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BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
many years ago, say fifty, to have the Kite in Owston Wood.” Messrs. Adcock, 
writing in F'ebruary, 1888, said: — ‘‘A regular visitor, sixty-five years ago, to 
Bradgate Park. Our grandfather, Gieorge Evans, told us that he had taken its 
nest there. He was born at Ansty, and had ample opportunities for observing 
these birds.” 
In Eutland. — Lord Gainsborough writes me : — “ Observed on Barrowden 
Heath by Mr. J. Montague in 1840. Eeported to have occurred in the vicinity 
of Uppingham by Ijord Lilford.” The Kev. J. B. Eeynardson, M.A., Kector of 
Care by, Lincolnshire, writing in 1888, kindly informed me that, fifty years and 
more ago, the Kite was common in Hol^^well and Pickworth Woods, he having 
seen two or three pairs soaring over the woods, and that nests were found in 
both, but, unfortunately, no specimen appears to have been preserved. 
HONEY-BUZZARD. Pernis apivorus (Linnaeus). 
A rare summer visitant.- — Harley recorded that a beautiful though immature 
example was shot by Chaplin, the gamekeeper, at JMartinshaw Wood, on 28th 
Oct., 1841. It was flushed from the ground, where it was feeding on the larv® 
of the common Wasp. Its cry, on being surprised, resembled that emitted by 
the Barn-Owl, being different from that of any other British bird with which 
his informant was conversant. A second example was, according to Harley, shot 
shortly afterwards in Lea Wood, near Ulverscroft, and, for want of a little 
knowledge of its rarity and value, was consigned to the Ferrets. I saw, at 
Noseley Hall, a specimen in ordinary dark plumage, shot by Sir Arthur Hazlerigg 
about 1872. I purchased a female specimen (in the immature brown plumage), 
shot at Theddingworth, 18th June, 1879, by Mr. W. Hart, jun. The weight was 
not taken, the bird being extremely thin. Length 23 inches; culmen, U5; 
wing, carpus to tip, 16 ; tarsus (of a dull orange-yellow), 2 ; irides, golden- 
yellow. The crop, gizzard, and intestines were filled with insects, mixed with 
vegetable fibre, probably grass-roots, one or two blades of grass, and a leaf, no 
doubt swallowed when tearing out a wild Bee’s nest. Careful washing produced 
small Bees (Womada sp. ?), about one hundred Ichneumon-I’lies, some Syrphidce, 
one Soldier-Beetle (I'elephorus sp. ?) and parts of other Beetles, one hundred 
or more larvae, or parts of larvae, of three species of Geometridce, the greater 
number being probably those of H. progemmaria. This specimen is now in 
the possession of Mr. R. W. Chase, of Edgbaston^ Birmingham. I examined a 
dark specimen in the possession of the late Mr. Widdowson, which was procured 
near Twyford Mill in September, 1881, by a Mr. Greasley, who for several 
mornings had seen it about, and had attempted to shoot it, when, after losing 
sight of it for two days, he was attracted to the spot where it lay dead, by a crowd 
of little birds surrounding it. Apparently it had been killed by flying against 
the telegraph-wires. Mr. Ingram writes that one was shot by Mr. Lovett near 
Belvoir. The IMuseum possesses an immature male specimen in light snuff- 
