50 BIRDS OF PREY. 



These are the noble birds of pre}^ ; their aspect, entire form, and 

 actions indicate the different manner of living they pursue, from 

 that of the Vultures. Strength, temerity, and stratagem are the 

 attributes of this great family of rapacious birds ; they are provided 

 with offensive arms denied to the ignoble race who feed on carrion ; 

 the means of flight, the power of seizing their prey, as well as the 

 vision, are very different in each. In these, the size of the head is 

 in proportion to the body, and wholly covered with feathers, as well 

 as the neck, which is short and thick. Their vision is acute and 

 extensive, their flight rapid and long sustained ; and they are able 

 to soar to a prodigious height. They live either solitary or in pairs : 

 and their nourishment, by choice, consists almost always of living 

 animals, which they seize and convey in their talons ; the different 

 manner of seizing their prey, and the courage they display in its pur- 

 suit, distinguish them one from another. The larger species siibsist 

 on quadrupeds and birds ; others on fish ; some only attack reptiles ; 

 but the greater number of the small species are content to live on 

 insects, and principally devour beetles. The plumage, at different 

 periods of age is extremely different ; the young are several years 

 before they acquire the stable livery of the advilt; this fixed charac- 

 ter only takes place in rheir 3d, 4th, or even, in some species, 

 their 6th year. The young are always distinguished from the old 

 by having more numerous and variable spots and lines ; when the 

 colors of the plumage in old individuals are disposed in transverse 

 lines and bands, the young of such species have the same marks dis- 

 posed lengthwise. The females are usually a third larger than the 

 other sex; besides vvhich disparity, the}^ have often also a different- 

 colored plumage. The moulting takes place only once in the year. 

 — It appears scarcely possible, that amidst a genus only distinguish- 

 ed for harsh and quailing cries, a musical species should occur; yet 

 according to Daudin the Falco musicus, of Caffraria, chants a song 

 morning and evening, a,nd sometimes like the nightingale even con- 

 tinues his lay throughout the night. 



^ 1. FALCONS PROPERLY SO CALLED. 



In these the bill is short, and curved from the base ; the edges of 

 the upper mandible provided with a tooth which closes into a 

 corresponding notch in the lower ; the nostrils rounded, and hav- 



