26 RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



hig a digestive fluid ; the stomach nearly membranous, 

 having its muscidar coat very thin, and furnished with 

 small central tendons; the intestine slender, and ge- 

 nerally having two small cceca near its extremity. They 

 liave a powerful and rapid, or light and buoyant, flight, 

 being furnished with long and frequently ample wings. 

 The females are larger than the males, and they rarely 

 produce a brood exceeding three or four. 



Many writers divide the Rapacious Birds into Diur- 

 nal and Nocturnal, — the former being the Vultures, and 

 the Eagles and Hawks, the latter the Owls. But even 

 here, as if we could not proceed a step in our classifi- 

 cations without doing violence to nature, there is error; 

 for some owls prey by day, and several hawks in the 

 twilight. However, speaking vaguely, we may say 

 that the arrangement is convenient. We now pro- 

 ceed to the examination of the Diurnal British Birds 

 of Prey. 



