CHAPTER IV. 
THE HONEY BUZZARD 
(.Pernis apivorus). 
“ Love you not, then, to list and hear 
The crackling of the gorse-flowers near, 
Pouring an orange-scented tide 
Of fragance o’er the desert wide ? 
To hear the Buzzard whimpering shrill, 
Hovering above you high and still?” 
Howitt. 
The Buzzards may truly be regarded as an ignoble family 
among birds of prey. Their courage is not of a high caste, 
while their build is deficient in that power so fully deve¬ 
loped in the Eagle, and their plumage is wanting in the 
hard, close-lying properties, which serve to strengthen the 
frame of the true Falcons. Their movements are sluggish, 
slow, and somewhat ungainly; their carriage is careless : 
in short, their whole appearance differs widely from that of 
other feathered robbers. For all this, however, they are 
excessively useful creatures, and are, as far as man is 
concerned, the most valuable of all diurnal birds of prey. 
None other are so well adapted for destroying the enemies 
of our woods and fields as these birds, or are so patient 
in the pursuit of their enemy. They are remarkable for 
the amount of food they can devour. Thousands upon 
thousands of rats, mice, liamster-rats, moles, insects, and 
