CHAPTER XII 

 THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY, OR ACCIPITRINES ORDER ACCIPITRES 



THE diurnal birds of prey 

 were long classed in a single group 

 with the owls and the ospreys, but 

 first the former and then the latter 

 were divided off; and there is 

 little doubt that view is correct, 



although, to our thinking, the MERWNS. 



ospreys appear to connect the two 



groups very intimately. Exclusive of the ospreys, the diurnal birds of prey, 

 as they may be conveniently designated, include falcons, hawks, kites, eagles, 

 buzzards, harriers, and vultures, together with the so-called secretary bird of 

 Africa and the American vultures; the two latter forming very aberrant groups, 

 one or both of which are by some ornithologists regarded as constituting distinct 

 orders. By the older naturalists the Accipitrines were placed at the head of the 

 birds, but by common consent they have now to yield this position to the Passerines, 

 which are, on the whole, the most highly-organized members of the entire class. 

 It must, how r ever, be remembered that, for their own particular mode of life, the 

 organization of these birds is as perfect as it is possible to conceive; and, from the 

 mechanical point of view, the spectacle of a falcon swooping on its quarry presents 

 us with one of the very highest developments of bird life. 



While agreeing with the owls and the ospreys in their desmognathous palate, 

 their hooked beak and curved talons, and the presence of a cere, the Accipitrines 

 (1938) 



