Retrospective Criticism. 95 



excursions, and shall be very glad if some of your correspondents could 

 give me, through your Journal, some intimation of its manners and habits. 

 It is described by Cuvier as having the blunt-toothed bill of the hawk, 

 and the long wings of the true falcons already noticed. It is there- 

 fore considered by some as a connecting link between them ; while it is 

 placed by Cuvier intermediate between the Nobiles, and the second grand 

 division of rapacious birds, called Ignobilcs, from their being seldom, if ever, 

 used in falconry. Under this title come the buzzards, kites, and eagles. 

 All these agree in having the bill provided only with a slight festoon, instead 

 of a tooth, and in the fourth feather of the wings being the longest. They 

 either dart or fall upon their prey, and do not seize it, like the noble 

 birds, by chase ; they may be called, indeed, poachers, while the true fal- 

 cons are legitimate hunters. Most of these ignoble birds will devour any 

 animal that comes in their way, as rats, mice, snails, slugs, beetles, &c., and 

 will, if pressed for food, even devour carrion. Buzzards are known by the 

 great length of their wings, their even tail, and their small head and bill. 

 Our native species are: — 1. The Hen-harrier; 2. Honey Buzzard; 

 5. Common Buzzard; 4. Rough-legged Buzzard; and, 5. Moor Buzzard. 

 The kites are not much unlike the buzzards, but have been separated from 

 them on account of their long forked tail. One species only is found with 

 us, and which is well known. The last tribe of ignoble birds are the eagles. 

 It seems strange that naturalists should differ so much from poets and his- 

 torians, who, in every age, have given the opposite denomination to these 

 birds. But this seems to have originated more in ignorance of their habits, 

 when compared to the true falcons. Eagles are certainly among the largest 

 birds, and eminent for great strength and powers of destruction. They 

 may be compared to the race of giants among men, as described in the 

 Fairy Tales ; but we seldom read of these giants being at the same time 

 brave, generous, or docile. On the contrary, poets describe them as trea- 

 cherous, cowardly, and blood-thirsty ; in short, just such a race as the eagles 

 are among birds. They may be kept in confinement, and reared from the 

 nest, but they are never tamed; and they will occasionally rob other more 

 courageous hunters, of the spoil which they want either the bravery or 

 activity to procure for themselves. Wilson, the delightful author, of the 

 American Ornithology, describes this trait in the character of the bald 

 eagle, in the following glowing colours : t — " Elevated on the high dead 

 limb of some gigantic tree, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of 

 the feathered tribes below. High over all these, hovers one, whose action 

 instantly arrests his attention; by his wide curvature of wing and sudden 

 suspension in air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk, settling over some 

 devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight ; and balancing 

 himself with half open wings on the branch, he watches the result. Down, 

 rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends the distant object of his attention, 

 the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep. At this 

 moment the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour ; and levelling his neck 

 for flight, he sees the fish-hawk once more emerge, struggling with his prey, 

 and mounting in the air with screams of exultation. These are the signal 

 for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, soon gains on 

 the fish-hawk ; each exerts his utmost to mount above the other, display- 

 ing in these rencontres the most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. 

 The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of 

 reaching his opponent, when with a sudden scream, probably of despair and 

 honest execration, the latter drops his fish. The eagle, poising himself for 

 a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, 

 snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten 

 booty silently away to the woods." In proof, however, of the innate 

 cowardice of this formidable robber, the same author adds, — "When 

 driven, as he sometimes is, by the combined courage of the fish-hawks, 



