On the Groups of the Falconidae. 313 



language of those days in which the present tribes were most 

 known and sought after for the purpose of Falconry, equally 

 separated, with a view to the same habits and qualities, under the 

 denomination of noble and ignoble. 



The noble or typical groups of the Falconidce, thus character- 

 ized by their manners, are equally set apart from the rest of the 

 family by external character. Their bill is strong, short, curved 

 from the base, and more or less dentated. This character of the 

 toothed bill may be considered as strongly indicative of rap- 

 torial habits. A similar peculiarity it may be observed, discerni- 

 ble among some of the Order of Insessores * is resorted to as a 

 mark of distinction between the birds which prey upon insects, 

 and those whose food is vegetable. And it is this character 

 which, next to habit, preserves the analogy between the Raptores 

 of the Class of Birds, and the Carnivora, or Ferae of Linnaeus, 

 among the Mammalia. It thus may be looked upon as an osten- 

 sible and important mark of separation among the tribes of birds 

 in general, and as a character, of which the greater developement 

 may more particularly be considered the strongest evidence of 

 typical superiority in the raptorial group before us. 



The typical groups, thus distinguished, arrange themselves 

 into two divisions or stirpes; the first of which is known by the 

 shortness of the wings, which do uot extend further than two thirds 

 of the tail ; the second, by the wings extending to an equal, or 

 nearly an equal length with the tail. The former of these normal 

 stirpes, which is distinguished from all the other short-winged 

 Falconidas by the bill being curved from the base, I shall denomi- 

 nate, for the sake of perspicuity, Stirps Accipitrina or Hawks ; the 

 latter, which is equally distinguished from all the long-winged 

 groups of the family by the strong dentation of the bill, I shall call 

 Stirps Falconina, or Falcons. The external character of these 

 typical groups can never be mistaken. They will either present, 

 like the true Falcons, a bill strongly dentated, which at once de- 



* It may be here necessary to state that in referring to the " Insessores," or 

 Perching Birds, I use a term introduced in some Observations of mine " On 

 the Natural Affinities of Birds," lately read before the Linnean Society. The 

 Order embraces the united Linnean Orders of Piece and Passeres. 



