Mr. Selby's Account of Two Rare British Birds. 273
No. XI. — An Account of Two rare British Birds. By Prideaux John Selby, Esq.
Read, May 21, 1832.
The accompanying drawings[1] are faithful portraits of two rare British birds, both of which I was so fortunate as to receive in the flesh. The first to which I direct your attention, is the beautiful variety of the Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus), one of the rarest of the British Falconidae. This bird was killed early in October, 1831, at Cheswick, in North Durham, which place is situated between the turnpike and the sea, about four miles to the south of Berwick. It had been observed to haunt a grove adjoining the residence of JOHN DONALDSON, Esq., for two or three evenings in succession, and was shot in the same, when at roost, by his servant; and I may add, as a curious coincidence, that about the same time G.T. FOX, Esq., of Durham, communicated to me the capture of another specimen near that city. The principal and striking variation in this individual, from the usual plumage, consists in the great mass of white about the head and neck, but other differences, as compared with the descriptions of authors, are also apparent. Upon dissection it proved a male, and though in beautiful plumage, was rather poor in condition, and very different from the state of that killed at Thrunton, and described by the Hon. H.T. LIDDELL, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Society.[2] The following is a correct description taken from the bird before dissection :— Bill, black; the cere and basal part of both mandibles, Dutch orange; space between the bill and eyes, covered with small, close set feathers, of a clove brown
