Arrangement of British Falcons. 



219 



2. Cinereous Eagle (Falco 

 Albicilla Linn.). — The Sea 

 Eagle (Falco Ossifragus) has 

 been satisfactorily ascertained 

 to be no other than the young ; 

 though it appears surprising, 

 that a bird, which has been 

 generally described as larger 

 than the Cinereous, should 

 now be pronounced the young 

 of the latter. This teaches us 

 how careful naturalists should 

 be to take descriptions them- 

 selves, and not to copy merely 

 what their predecessors have 

 said, who perhaps have never 

 seen the thing they attempt to describe. The Bald Eagle 

 (F^lco leucocephalus) is considered by some a variety of the 

 Cinereous ; but Temminck, I think, from his observations, is 

 authorised in continuing them distinct. — 3. Osprey (Falco 

 JFZaliaeetus Linn.). 



Section III. Hawks. 



The birds of this section 

 are those in falconry called 

 short-winged hawks, their 

 closed wings being far distant 

 from the tip of the tail. 



1. Goshawk ( Falco j^alum- 

 barius Linn.). {Jig. 87.) — 

 Your correspondent Z. B. has 

 omitted this bird. It is very 

 rare in England, but breeds in 

 Scotland and the Orkneys. 

 The Gentil Falcons of the 

 Brit. Zool, are doubtless only 

 the young of the Goshawk. 

 It may here be well to observe, that modern ornithologists 

 consider that there is no such bird as the Gentil Falcon, as a. 

 distinct species. The birds that have been described under 

 that name appear to me to differ much, some being long- 

 winged hawks, and others short. The former will be gene- 

 rally found to correspond with some state of plumage of the 

 Peregrine, and the short-winged with that of the Goshawk. 

 The term Gentil has caused confusion, from having been ap- 



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