THE WORLD'S BIRDS. 



27 



to the Old World in temperate and tropical regions, 

 but do not occur in Australia ; and the true 

 Eagles, Buzzards, Hawks, Falcons, etc., which 

 cannot very well be divided into sub-divisions, 

 and some or other of which may be found every- 

 where. 



In dry regions in the Old World, the small white 

 Scavenger Vultures (Neophron percnopterus and N. 

 ginginianus) — two scarcely separable races — are the 

 most familiar, haunting towns and villages. They 

 are driven off from carcases by the large Griffons 

 (Gyps) of various species and their allies. The 

 black Bengal Vulture (Pseudogyps hengalensis) is 

 the commonest of this type in India. The Lam- 

 mergeier, or Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbaUis), 

 a very large bird with long tail, feathered head, 

 and bearded chin, is found in mountainous regions 

 all across the Old World, and is one of the links 

 between Vultures and Eagles ; in the Himalayas it 

 is called Golden Eagle. The true Golden Eagle 

 (Aquila chrysaefus) is found all across the northern 

 hemisphere. The best-known North American 

 Eagle is, however, the White-headed Sea-Eagle 

 (Haliaetus leucocephahts) with tail as well as head 

 white. No typical Eagles inhabit South America, 

 but there is one, the Wedge-tailed Eagle (Uroaetus 

 audax) in Australia, very dark in colour and slender 

 in form. 



Falcons, with dark eyes and long wings, such 

 as the Saker illustrated, occur almost everywhere, 

 our well-known Peregrine (F. peregrinus) being 

 of nearly world-wide range ; our Kestrel (Tin- 

 nunculus alaudarius) is replaced by very similar 

 species in South Africa and Australia. The so- 

 called Sparrow-hawk of America (T. sparverius) 

 is a small and very pretty Kestrel. The true 

 Sparrow-hawks (Accipiter) and the nearly-allied 



