tion. I t breeds in the southern parts of Norway, and
examples taken from the nest in that country have been
sent to the Zoological Gardens by Mr. Percy Godman, but
it is not a common bird there and does not, in the opinion
of Herr Collett, cross the Dovre-fjeld. In Sweden it certainly
goes much further north, and Wolley obtained its
eggs from the neighbourhood of the Finnish frontier some
way within the Arctic circle. Pallas states that it has been
observed throughout Russia and Siberia, but the enterprising
ornithologists who have more recently explored the most
northern and eastern parts of Asia have not met with it,
though it occurs in Japan, whence there is a specimen in
the Leyden Museum, and Père David has obtained it in
autumn near Pekin. I t apparently does not inhabit India
—the examples from that country, formerly attributed to it,
belonging to another species, the Pernis ptilorhynchus. In
Palestine the Honey-Buzzard is rather scarce, though believed
to be a resident, but in Arabia and Egypt, where it is. said
to be common, it seems to be only a winter visitant. Two
specimens have been sent from Natal to Mr. Gurney, and
though it has not occurred to Mr. Layard in the Cape Colony,
it is believed that the “ Tachard” of Le Vaillant, which he
says he procured there, is founded upon this species. The
Leyden Museum contains two examples from the Gold Coast.
Singularly enough it does not seem to have been recorded
from Algeria ; but Mr. G. W. H. Hay mentions it as passing
northward over Tangiers in spring in immense numbers,
while Lord Lilford on one occasion observed the return
autumnal flight, consisting of many hundreds, crossing the
Straits of Gibraltar from Spain to Africa.
Throughout all the countries in which it is found, the
Honey-Buzzard seems to be a local bird, but it is a well-
known species in almost every part of Europe, and the places
where it occurs, even, as it were, accidentally, and is killed
are often visited by other examples for several years in succession.
Thus Sir William Jardine remarks of one killed
in Northumberland :—
The district around Twizel appears to have something
attractive to this species, for, within these few years, several
specimens have been procured both in the adult and immature
plumage. The bird in question was accidentally
observed to rise from the situation of a wasp’s nest, which
it had been attempting to excavate, or in fact to a certain
extent had accomplished, and the large hole which had
been scraped, shewed that a much greater power could be
employed, and that the bird possessed organs much better
fitted to remove the obstacles which generally concealed its
prey, than a superficial examination of the feet and legs
would warrant us in ascribing to it. A few hours afterwards,
the task was found to be entirely completed, the
comb torn out and cleared from the immature young ; and
after-dissection proved that at this season (autumn) at least,
birds or mammalia formed no part of the food. A steel-
trap, baited with the comb, secured the aggressor in the
course of the next day, when he had returned to review the
scene of his previous havoc.”
Examination has usually proved the food to have been the
lame of bees and wasps, obtained in the manner above
described ; but the remains of coleopterous and lepidopterous
insects have also been found in the stomach of the Honey-
Buzzard, as well as corn, earth-worms, slugs, small birds
eggs and moles, while M. Gerbe discovered a young Wild
Duck and a fish in a nest he saw. The feet have been
noticed to be covered with cow-dung, shewing that the bird
had been searching therein for the grubs it contained. One
example is said to have been shot in the act of pursuing
a Wood-Pigeon, and Mr. Sterland records the very singular
capture in Inkersal Forest of two Honey-Buzzards taken
simultaneously in a trap baited with a rabbit.”' A bird of
* A somewhat similar instance has long been known to th e Editor. A pair
of Kestrels, together with a Ked-legged Partridge, were found by a gamekeeper
in the same trap, which was set a t th e mouth of a rabbit-burrow. The Partridge
must, as is the habit of the species, have been about to tak e shelter in the hole
at the moment when th e Hawks seized it. All three birds are still preserved a t
Cavenham Hall, in Suffolk, where th e occurrence took place. An instance of
the simultaneous capture of a Falcon and a Stock-Dove is also recorded by the
late Mr. Salmon (Mag. Nat. Hist, iv. p. 147).