■94- Retrospective Criticis^n. 



tells me is the white worm or ver Wane of your Gardener's Magazine. 

 How are we to know, if scientific entomologists will not condescend to 

 thinkfor us? — ^. n. 



Latrcille's Natural System of Animals. — ^N\\\ you, or any of your 

 readers, inform me in what respect Latreille's system differs from tiiat of 

 Cuvier, and what relation both systems bear to what are called the circular, 

 binary, quinary, and septenary systems, of which we hear so much by 

 modern naturalists? — Alexander Simson. York Street, Covcnt Garden^ 

 April 10. 



In our succeeding Number, the first of a sei'ies of papers on zoology will 

 be given ; introductory to which the above and other systems of arrange- 

 ment will be discussed. — Coiid. 



Art. XI. Retrospective Criticism. 



The Eagle and the Hawk. — Sir, In the vignette of your Prospectus 

 (otherwise very prettily and correctly designed) you have given a figure, in- 

 tended, I presume, for an eagle ; but allow me 

 to hint that it has much of the hawk aspect 

 about it, and, in short, that it is a compound 

 of both. The bills of all eagles are more or 

 less lengthened at the base j that is, they form 

 a straight line towards the nostrils, and then a 

 suddenly curve as they approach the end, 

 where they bend into a strong hook. {Jig. 



■4 6. j?.") The bills of hawks (6) and falcons (c), . \-^'<«sr'«v K^mw^h 

 on the contrary, are very much shorter, and {Aj^^^^^'^^f^^^^^^ 

 the curve,instead of commencing at about halfc 

 the length of the bill, begins, as in the figure 

 in your vignette, at the very base. These characters and differences in the 

 bill mainly serve to distinguish the two divisions of rapacious birds 

 placed by Linnaeus in the genus Falco, and known in the days of fal- 

 conry by the terms noble and ignoble. The noble falcons are those which 

 seize their prey in the air during flight j for they never devour what 

 has been killed or wounded by other birds ; they must drink the blood 

 of their victims warm, or not at all. In all these birds the bill is very 

 short, strong, and much hooked. Cuvier, and other French reformers, 

 have made numerous sub-genera of such as vary more or less in the 

 shape and form of the bill and wings ; but, as I am not acquainted with 

 the foreign species, I shall only notice those which occur in Britain. Of 

 these noble falcons we have two races : the first, which in point of fact, 

 are the most noble, are such as have the upper mandible of the bill provided 

 with a strong and sharp tooth {fig. 46. b), used, most probably, for the more 

 expeditious tearing of their prey; the wings, too, are very long; often, indeed, 

 exceeding the tail, and the second feather is always the longest. In both 

 these characteristics, swiftness and rapacity are strongly indicated. To 

 this tribe belong the restrel or stannel, the merlin, the hobby, and the 

 peregrine falcon. The last of these, from its docility and courage, seems 

 to have been the favourite among falconers. The second race of falcons 

 are inferior to the first in many respects ; the tooth of their bills is rounded 

 off, and does not present an acute angle ; while the wings are proportion- 

 ably short, and consequently weaker. Our only native example of these 

 birds (which are the true hawks) is the sparrow-hawk Between these two 

 races stands the Hiero Falco of Cuvier, known in this country by the name 

 of the Iceland falcon, I have never met this bird in any of my shooting 



