this species, kept in confinement, killed and ate rats, as
well as birds of considerable size, with great ease and good
appetite. Buffon says, that in winter, when fat, the Honey-
Buzzard is good eating.
As was long ago observed by Willughby, the Honey-
Buzzard “ runs very swiftly like a Hen,” and its carriage
and the short, rounded feathers which clothe its lores give
it the most unhawk-like look of all the British Falconidce.
Mr. Newcome, who obtained some young birds from the
nest in France, found them, though allowed complete
liberty, to he exceedingly tame and domestic. Notwithstanding
their familiarity, however, as autumn approached
they disappeared, joining no doubt the hands of their
brethren migrating southwards at that season.
This species, like some of the true Buzzards, presents
remarkable variety in colour and markings, especially in
birds of the first or second year ; but after the assumption
of the uniform ashy-grey head, indicating maturity, there is
little irregularity. Some extreme variations are well illustrated
in Naumann’s work 011 the birds of Germany, and a
series of figures, intending to shew the successive changes
of plumage, have been given by Mr. Fisher in ‘ The Zoologist’
for 1842 (pp. 376, 377) and 1843 (p. 793).
The figure and description here given were taken from a
specimen in the British Museum, which was killed near
York. The beak is black; the cere grey, the irides
yellow; the upper part of the head and hack of the neck
huffy-white, with brown streaks; uniform brown above;
the primaries nearly black, the tail above barred transversely
with two shades of brown : the front of the neck, breast,
and belly, pale yellow-brown ; the shaft and middle line of
each feather marked by a dark brown longitudinal streak or
patch, those of the belly transversely b arred: thighs and
under tail-coverts varied with yellowish-brown and white;
the legs and toes yellow; the claws black. Honey-Buzzards
measure from twenty-two to twenty-five inches, depending
011 the sex. In the young the irides are hazel, but become
straw-coloured with age.
C ir c u s æ r u g in o s u s (Linnæus*).
THE MARSH-HARRIER.
Circus æruginosus.
Cir c u s , Lacépèdef . - B e a k small, bending from th e base, compressed and
elevated ; cutting edge of th e upper mandible with a slight festoon. Cere large.
Nostrils oval, and p a rtly concealed by th e hairs radiating from the lores. Lower
part of the head surrounded by a ruff of small th ick -se t feathers.^ Wings o n g ,
the first feather very short, th e th ird and fourth th e longest. Tail long. arsi
long, slender, and naked ; toes ra th e r short, and no t very unequal ; claws slightly
curved, and very sharp.
* Fctlco æruginosus, Linnæus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766).
f Mémoires de l ’In s titu t, iii. p. 506 (1800-1801).