CHAPTER VII 



THE BIRDS OF PREY— SECRETARY-BIRD, EAGLES, 

 BUZZARDS, HAWKS, KITES, VULTURES, AND FALCONS 



Order— ACCIPITRES 



Among the Birds of Prey the older naturalists always included 

 the Owls, which they distinguished as the " Nocturnal," or Night- 

 flying, Birds of Prey. But it is now known that the Owls, though 

 in many respects closely resembling the birds to be described in this 

 chapter, are yet members of a very different group. They are, in 

 short, nearly related to the Nightjars. 



The purpose of classification, it must be remembered, is not so 

 much to bring together those birds which are externally similar, as 

 those which are related one to another. Unrelated birds may, and 

 often do, resemble one another, because they lead similar lives, and 

 thus have become slowly changed till they assume a common like- 

 ness ; while birds, on the other hand, which are really closely re- 

 lated, come to assume very different shapes, and this because their 

 mode of life is different. 



The relationship of birds one to another is to-day determined 

 rather by anatomical structure than by external form. And it is on 

 these grounds that anatomists have separated the Owls from the 

 Eagle tribe. 



The hooked beaks, sharp claws, and upright carriage of the body, 

 which distinguish both the Owls and the Day-flying Birds of Prey, 

 or " Accipitres," owe their being to the same causes. That is to say, 

 when the ancestors of these birds began preying on their neighbours, 

 they did it because they were stronger, and had heavier, sharper 



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