238
ON THE BREEDING OF THE HONEY BUZZARD
IN ESSEX.
By the Rev. F. C. R. JOURDAIN, M.A., M.B.O.U.
With one illustration.
[Read 6 April 1918.]
WHEN Mr. Miller Christy published his excellent handbook
on the Birds of Essex in 1890, he was unable to discover
any actual record of the breeding of the Honey Buzzard (Pernis
apivorus) in Essex, although the bird mentioned1 as having
been shot by Mr. Charles Smoothy at Little Baddow on
18 May 1888 might probably have nested if it had been
left undisturbed, while the same might be said of those
shot at Audley End on 1 June 1838 and at Wivenhoe
Park in June 1867. In the later list in the Victoria History
of the County of Essex (i., p. 244 : 1903), by the same writer,
it is stated that "there is no record of its having bred in the
county for many years, but it has not improbably done so, as
individuals have occurred from time to time in the height of
summer." It must be remembered, however, that there is
always the possibility that such birds may have been either
unpaired stragglers which had failed to secure mates or
wandering survivors when one bird of a pair had been shot
from a nest.
In the following case, however, the evidence seems to be con-
clusive. In June 1847, a pair of Honey Buzzards bred near
the "Rodney" Inn, a well-known picnic-resort occupying
an elevated position and enjoying very extensive views,
in the extensive woods in the parish of Little Baddow.
The egg was (or, more probably, two eggs were) taken
by the Rev. Samuel Pearson, who was at that time curate
of Pentney and perpetual-curate of West Bolney. in Norfolk.
He was then a man of thirty-one. Six years later, he accepted
the living of Brown Edge, near Burslem, in Staffordshire, and in
1867 was appointed Rector of Bepton, near Midhurst,
Sussex, where apparently he remained until his death.
The egg (for one only is known to be now in
existence) passed into the hands of Mr. W. H. Turle.
After he left England, his collection was sold by direction of
1 Op., cit., p. 171.