COMMON KITE.
“The Honey-Buzzard reaches us somewhat late in the year, and commences to build its nest when the other Raptors have hatched their broods. The nest is very flat, and is placed on the highest of our forest trees; it is principally constructed of green twigs, mixed with dead sticks, and is lined with moss, hair, and feathers. It generally contains three eggs, of a rusty yellow ground, very thickly blotched and spotted with dark reddish-brown. They are somewhat small and rather long in shape. Of these rarely more than two are hatched. The young ones are at first fed with Caterpillars, Flies, Beetles, Worms, &c., which the old birds collect in their crops, and then throw up; later they are treated to pieces of Wasps’ nests filled with larvæ, Frogs, Mice, young birds, &c. The parent birds still continue to feed their young long after the latter have left the nest. Both young and old birds remain in company almost till the moulting season comes round, when they migrate more to the southward.”
The Honey-Kite inhabits, during the summer, the greater part of Europe, and flies away to Africa to pass the winter. In India it is represented by a species which goes through similar changes of plumage, but may always be recognised by its long crest. The phases through which the Honey-Kite passes are most remarkable, the bird being sometimes nearly all white, at other times all black; and this plumage seems to occur at any age, sometimes in youth, sometimes in old age; and hence this is called a melanism (μέλας, black). Many birds of prey are subject to this melanism, but none more so than the Honey-Buzzards, and their representatives in America, the Tooth-billed Kites (Leptodon).
ANDERSSON’S PERN (Machærhamphus[199] Anderssoni).
This remarkable bird bears the name of one of the most intrepid, as well as one of the most unassuming, of African travellers, the late Charles John Andersson, who discovered it during his residence in Damara Land in South-western Africa. So rare is it, and so difficult to obtain, that he only managed to procure two specimens in the space of ten years, though constantly on the look-out for the bird. He writes concerning it:—“On the 10th of March, 1865, I obtained one specimen, a female, of this singular bird at Objimbinque, Damara Land. It was shot by my servant, who observed another, probably the male. I imagine that I have myself observed it once or twice in the neighbourhood of Objimbinque just before dusk. When brought to me I instinctively suspected the bird to be a feeder at dusk or at night, and called out, ‘Why, that fellow is likely to feed on Bats!’ And truly enough so it turned out; for on dissection an undigested Bat was found in the stomach; and in another specimen, subsequently killed by Axel, there were several Bats in the stomach.”[200] It is probably owing to this habit of feeding in the evening that the bird is so difficult to procure, as is the case with many of the Goat-suckers, which are also night-feeding birds. Since Mr. Andersson’s death, two or three specimens of his Pern have been sent from Madagascar, but in the intervening portions of the African continent it is as yet unknown.
The colouring of this species is plain, being of a chocolate-brown colour, with a long crest springing from the back of the head; above the eye is a white spot, and another below the eye; the throat and chest are white, with a streak of dark brown down the centre of the throat; the quills and tail are banded the bars showing paler below. The length of the bird is about seventeen inches.
Only one other species of the genus Machærhamphus is known, and this is Westermann’s Pern (M. alcinus), which is an inhabitant of Malacca, where it is almost as rare as Andersson’s Pern is in Africa. It has lately been sent from South-eastern New Guinea, and may ultimately be found to inhabit some of the Moluccas.
THE FIFTH SUB-FAMILY.—THE FALCONS (Falconinæ).
In all the true Falcons and in the allied genera the bill, which was simply festooned in the Eagles, Kites, and Buzzards, becomes very distinctly toothed, and in some genera even two teeth are present. In these birds, too, the cere is strongly shown, and is generally of a bright yellow colour.