THE FALCONS. 



THE FALCON. 



Linnaeus has comprehended, under the denomination falco, not only the eagles, but 

 the falcons and many other rapacious birds, which later naturalists have found the neces- 

 sity of separating from that division. And yet the species of which the genus falco 

 remains composed, vmdergo, in the course of years, so many variations in their plumage, 

 that they are scarcely even now to be distinguished with exactitude. But the generic 

 characters have become certainly much more definite and precise. They consist of a 

 beak cui-ved from the base, the upper mandible of which, crooked at its extremity, is 

 armed on each side and towards the end with, one and sometimes more, teeth, more or 

 less projecting ; the lower one of wliich, being convex tmdemeath, is sloped to the 

 point. From the centre of their circular nostrils arises a pliant and conical tubercle. 

 The tongue is fleshy, sloped, and canaliculated. _The tarsi are short. The feet are pro- 

 vided with strong toes, of which the external have a membrane at the base. The three 

 external pen-feathers of the wings are narrowed and pointed at the end. The second is 

 the largest, and the others, from the fourth to the tenth, are regularly wedged. 



