240 JOURDAIN : THE BREEDING OF THE HONEY BUZZARD. 
have been breeding or about to breed ; also that, when corres¬ 
ponding with Mr. Miller Christy on this subject, before he knew 
of the locality where Mr. Pearson’s egg was taken, he wrote to 
me : “ I have some reason to believe that breeding took place 
in 1888 and 1895 in the Little Baddow Woods, which are very 
extensive.” Later, Mr. Christy amplified this information by 
the statement that the discoverer of the reputed Honey Buzzard’s 
nest in 1895 was his friend, the late Mr. E. A. Fitch, F.L.S., of 
Mai don, Essex. In the spring of the year named, Mr. Fitch 
found, in a small oak tree in a wood on the edge of Woodham 
Walter Common (but in tlie parish of Little Baddow), a large 
hawk’s nest, evidently freshly built, as the twigs still had on 
them many green and withered leaves. It contained no eggs. 
Mr. Fitch visited it on three subsequent occasions, taking with 
him several ornithological friends. On one of these occasions,, 
a large hawk slipped off as he approached ; but, so far as he 
knows, no eggs were ever laid in the nest. Mr. Christy adds 
that, some time afterwards, he himself saw the nest and that 
he could still point out the particular tree in which it was built. 
Although no one was able positively to identify as a Honey 
Buzzard the bird seen, it could hardly have been anything else. 
To sum up : there is no doubt that breeding took place and 
at least one egg was laid at Little Baddow in June 1847, and, 
some probability that a pair nested in the same woods in 1888 ; 
while there is evidence that a nest was built at Little Baddow 
in 1895, but apparently came to nothing. 
I should like to acknowledge the cordial help received during 
this investigation from Mr. J. H. Gurney, the Registrar of 
Norwich Diocese (Mr. L. G. Bolingbroke), and Mr. Miller Christy. 
[It may be worth while to add that there appears to be 
some error in regard to the egg recorded by the late Mr. W. J. 
Sterland (Descriptive List of the Birds of Nottinghamshire, 1879, 
p. 9) as having been taken in 1869 from a nest within six miles 
of London. This, if correct, could only mean that the nest was 
built in Epping Forest. There is, however, reason to believe 
that Sterland was deceived, and that the egg passed off upon 
him as a Honey Buzzard’s was nothing more than a Hen’s egg 
skilfully painted.—M.C.] 
