90 THE GOSHAWK. 



getting rare in Britain — giving place to plainer birds, as the 

 patricians were superseded by the plebeians in Rome before she 

 fell ; and as the aristocracy may yet be by the democracy — not 

 only in Britain but throughout the world — the classes giving 

 way to the masses, as Mr Gladstone has it. But, as Shakespeare 

 makes Coriolanus say to their tribunes — 



" Thus we debase 

 The nature of our seats ; and make the rabble 

 Call our cares, fears ; which will in time break ope 

 The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows 

 To peck the eagles." 



Or as Rosse and the Old Man say, when speaking of the dark 

 and stormy night when Duncan was murdered by Macbeth, — 



Eosse — " By the clock, 'tis day, 



And yet dark night strangles the travailing lamp ; 

 Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame, 

 That darkness does the face of earth intomb, 

 When living light should kiss it ?" 



Old Man — " 'Tis unnatural, 



Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, 



A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place, 



Was by a mousing owl havvk'd at, and killed." 



The Goshawk. 



(Falco Palumbarlus.) Linn. ( Astur Palumbaiius.) Bescht. 



" Was Mahomet inspired with a dove? 

 Thou with an eagle art inspired then." — Henry VI. 



This powerful bird stands at the head of the sub-family, the 

 Accipitriua : the generic features of which are — bill short and 

 curving from the base, with the sides compressed, and a 

 prominent lobe on the cutting margin of the lower mandible, 

 instead of the tooth and corresponding notch in the lower one 

 of the true falcons ; nor is the bill so strong as theirs, and 

 though its wings are shorter, its tail and tarsi are much longer — 

 like the sparrow-hawk's, which it resembles both in form and 

 habits. Its prey is taken entirely on the wing. Carrion of all 

 kind is spurned, even when pressed by hunger. Birds and 

 quadrupeds, such as wild ducks, hares and rabbits, are its general 

 food, which it pursues with great rapidity — its short wings 

 and long rudder-like tail being specially given by Nature for 



