264 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
Farringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.* 
Since that time I have met with none till now. The specimen 
mentioned above was in fine preservation, and not injured by the 
shot : it measured forty-two inches from wing to wing, and twenty- 
one from beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and an half 
standing weight. This species is very robust, and wonderfully 
formed for rapine ; its breast was plump and muscular ; its thighs 
long, thick, and brawny; and its legs remarkably short and well 
set: the feet were armed with most formidable, sharp, long 
talons: the eyelids and cere of the bill were yellow : but the irides 
of the eyes dusky ; the beak was thick and hooked, and of a dark 
colour, and had a jagged process near the end of the upper 
mandible on each side: its tail, or train, was short in proportion 
to the bulk of its body; yet the wings, when closed, did not 
extend to the end of the train. From its large and fair proportions 
it might be supposed to have been a female; but I was not 
permitted to cut open the specimen. For one of the birds of prey, 
which are usually lean, this was in high case: in its craw were 
many barley-corns, which probably came from the crop of the 
wood-pigeon, on which it was feeding when shot; for voracious 
birds do not eat grain, but when devouring their quarry, with 
undistinguishing vehemence swallow bones and feathers, and all 
matters, indiscriminately. This faleon was probably driven from 
the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they are known 
to breed, by rigorous weather and deep snows that had lately 
fallen. 
I am, &c. 
* See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. 
