HI 



PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



EIGHTH LESSON. 



EAGLE-SHOOTING. ORGANS OF SENSATION OF THE RAPACIOUS BIRDS j 

 STRUCTURE OF THE EYE, NASAL PASSAGES, EAR, AND TONGUE. OR- 

 GANS OF RESPIRATION OF VULTURES, HAWKS, AND OWLS. 



Having examined the series of land birds characterized by 

 their habit of walking or leaping on the ground or on trees, 

 when searching for their food, we now come to those which, in 

 pursuing their prey, are incapable of advancing through the 

 instrumentality of what anatomists call their sacral extremi- 

 ties, but trust entirely to those named the atlantal, although 

 generally they can hop or hobble on the ground, and a few 

 perform there a kind of locomotion not altogether unworthy of 

 being called walking. 



It is now the early part of summer, and we have anticipated 

 the sun, for while with our guns we advance along the hill side, 

 he still lingers behind the grey mass of granite that obstructs 

 our View of the Minsh. The sandy pastures have assumed a 

 lively tint of green, the yellow pilewort and pink-tipped daisy 

 are scattered profusely around, and the Draba verna strives, 

 half in vain, to ornament the turf of the rude stone-wall, on 

 which are seen a pair of Wheatears, anxious for the safety of 

 their not yet finished nest. Although the Golden Plovers 

 have betaken themselves to the moors, and the Redwings 

 have fled to the north, the mellow notes of the gentle Ring 

 Dottrel come from the pebbly beach, the cry of the Cuckoo 

 is heard on the hill, the Snipe drums away on rapid wing, 

 and the little bays are filled with flocks of Terns, screaming 

 joyously as they pursue the shoals of sand-eels. Hark to the 

 cry of the Corn Crake issuing apparently from that patch of 



