FAMILY I. FALCONINtE. 



EAGLES AND HAWKS. 



The eighteen species of this family that occur in 

 Britain, agree in the following circumstances. Their 

 body is ovate, compact, much deeper and broader be- 

 fore, on account of the great development of the pec- 

 toral muscles, and the width of the furcula ; their neck 

 short ; their head large, or of moderate size ; their wings 

 long and broad ; their tail either long or of moderate 

 length. 



The skeleton varies greatly in the different species, 

 being extraordinarily strong in the eagles and the 

 larger falcons, and comparatively slender in the spar- 

 row hawk and harriers. The cranium is short and 

 broad, occupying only that portion of the head which 

 naturalists term the occiput ; the orbits are extremely 

 large, and separated by a bony septum, having a round- 

 ish or oblong hole in the centre : in some, as the eagles 

 and falcons, there is a superciliary bone attached to the 

 lachrymal ; the nasal cavity is large, as is that of the 

 organ of hearing. The cervical vertebrae are commonly 

 twelve, the dorsal nine, the united lumbar and sacral 

 eleven or twelve, the caudal eight, sometimes nine, 

 the last one large and cultriform j the true ribs are se- 

 ven, and, excepting the last, have an elongated process 



