adult, but also from each other. I bave seen an immature example of a uniform chocolate-brown, and
c ’ c ‘ LCL . : ; a : : 3
others in a costume of mingled buff and brown. The bird evidently becomes whiter as it advances in age ;

some have delicate grey heads, and flanks beautifully barred with dark brown, while older birds have
strongly blotched mananes over the whole of the under surface. The fine pair from which my figures were
faker: eRe kindly lent fa me for the purpose by John Rocke, Esq. They were trapped near that gentle-
man’s seat, Clungunford Hall, Shropshire, early in June 1865. |

Sir William Jardine stated in his address to the Members of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, in
September 1836, that “The district around Twizell, in Northumberland, phe to be very ata to
this species ; for within a few years several specimens have been Prog e both - the adult and the nena
ture plumage. One of them was observed to rise from the site of a wasps’ nest which it had been attempting

to excavate, and to a certain extent had accomplished the operation. The size of the hole which had been

made showed that a much greater power could be employed, and that the bird possessed organs much better
fitted to remove the obstacles which generally conceal its prey than a superficial examination of the feet
A few hours afterwards the task was found to be entirely completed, the

and legs would seem to warrant.
A steel trap, baited with the comb, secured the

comb torn out and cleared of the immature young.
aggressor in the course of the next day, when he returned to review the scene of his previous havoc ; and
dissection proved that at this time mammalia or birds formed no part of its food.”

Mr. Thompson states that the stomach of an example killed in Ireland contained a few of the larvee and
some fragments of perfect coleopterous insects, several whitish-coloured hairy caterpillars, the pupa of a
species of butterfly, and also of the six-spot Burnet moth. One examined by White of Selborne contained
limbs of frogs and many grey shelless snails. In Mr. Stevenson’s ‘ Birds of Norfolk’ it is stated that the
stomach of an example killed at Holkham, and of a female taken at Saxmundham, was well filled with young
wasps ; in a third, killed near Lowestoft, were found the remains of Blackbirds’ eggs, and in the throat
of a fourth several small fragments of the eggs of the Song-Thrusb. Mr. Yarrell was told that one kept in
confinement killed and ate rats as well as birds of considerable size. It will therefore be seen that, although
wasps and their larvee form part of its food, its diet is so much varied that it may almost be regarded as
omnivorous. Buffon says that in winter, when fat, it is itself very good eating.

In bis remarks upon two small birds in full plumage, shot at Northrepps, near Cromer, on the 25th of
Aueust, 1857, Mr. Gurney says, ‘* About 9 o’clock this morning I was riding along a broad green drive
which runs through a wood in this place, when a Honey-Buzzard rose from the grass and alighted on a tree
at the edge of the wood. I shortly after sent my gamekeeper in pursuit of it, and he succeeded in shooting
it near the spot where I saw it. Hearing afterwards that it had been seen flying in company with a second
specimen, he returned to the drive and succeeded in shooting that also, very nearly at the same spot where
he had procured the first specimen, being guided in his search by loud whistling cries which the bird was
making, probably as a call-note to the one which had been previously shot. About two hours later my son,
who was passing through the drive, saw a third specimen rise from the ground and alight on a tree, in a
similar manner and nearly in the same place as the first. The gamekeeper was again sent in pursuit ; but
when he succeeded in getting a view of this bird, it had risen so high in the air that it was out of shot, and
continued flying at a great height, in an inland direction, till it disappeared. Both specimens that were
procured were in full adult dress, and possessed the beautiful grey tinge on the head which always distin-
guishes the adult examples of this bird. On dissection both of these specimens proved to be male birds.
Their stomachs contained the remains of wasps and wasp-grubs.”

The vest, which is of a very large size, is placed in the forks of trees, often of the beech ; it is shallow in
form, and built of sticks, of considerable size, intermingled with twigs with their leaves on, and is lined with
leaves and wool. The eggs, which are generally deposited in June, are of a bright orange-brown, largely
blotched, sometimes in the middle, at others principally at the larger end, with two shades of rich chestnut-
brown ; their average length is about two inches, by one inch and three-quarters in breadth.

The principal figure in the accompanying Plate represents an adult male, of the natural size, with a nest

of the Tree-Wasp; the reduced hgures in the distance, an adult female and two immature birds.