314 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 



cides their station : or if, as in some of the Hawks, the mandible is 

 entire, or marked only by a rounded protuberance instead of a 

 tooth, they will exhibit the united characters of short wings, and 

 short bills, which though observable separately in other groups of 

 the family, are found united in no species besides those of the 

 Hawks. 



Of the aberrant or ignoble species of the family, a group pre- 

 sents itself nearly approaching that of the Falcons in the length of 

 the wings, and the general form of the bill, but separated from it 

 by the absence of a tooth on the upper mandible. The deficiency 

 in this, character indicates at once a falling off from the superiour 

 courage and higher faculties of the typical division of the family. 

 Its habits are conformably to this deficiency slothful and cowardly ; 

 it does not pursue its prey upon the wing, but seizes it by stealth 

 and in ambuscade ; while it is also found, unlike the nobler Fal- 

 eonida?, to feed upon substances not procured by its own rapine. 

 This group may be distinguished according to the denomination of 

 its type, as Stirps Buteonina, or Buzzards. 



Nearly allied to the la^t division in their inferiour habits and 

 faculties, is a group of which the well-known F. Milvus of Lin- 

 naeus forms the most conspicuous type. Possessing however an 

 even still weaker bill and feebler talons than the Buzzards, it is 

 particularly distinguished from them by its tail being more or less 

 forked, and its wings longer than the tail. These last-mentioned 

 particulars give the present group a decidedly distinct character in 

 their mode of flight. They seem to glide through the air with 

 an easy and imperceptible motion, sailing* in circles with a grace 

 and elegance peculiarly their own. This fourth group may be set 

 apart as the Stirps Milvina, or Kites. 



The entire of the remaining species of Falconidw, that are not 



* Iidem (milvi) videntur artem gubernandi docuisse cauda? flexibus, in caelo 

 monstrante natura, quod opus esset in profundo. Plin. lib. x. c. x. Alis ex- 

 pansis inae're se librat: quin nulla vel rara alarum agitatione de loco in locum 

 provehitur velut fluxu aut lapsu quodum. Hinc Anglis Glead dicitur a verbo 

 glide, quod labi motu velut insensibili et tranquillo absque agitatione aliqua aut 

 subsultu significat, ut flumen super planitiem sensim declivem. Ray. Syn. 

 Moth. Av. p. 17. 



