101 



and eaten, but we have always remarked that 

 among the more noble, the Peregrine Falcon, 

 for instance, the taste, if we may use the expres- 

 sion, was more refined ; tainted food was always 

 refused, and so also was some of the strongly 

 scented mammalia ; polecats or weasels were never 

 eaten, and even a cat was not esteemed savoury, 

 whereas a hare or rabbit would have been at 

 once devoured. It may be remarked here, that 

 in these two corresponding families of quadrupeds 

 and birds, members of each have been trained to 

 hunt and kill game for the sport or use of man. 



In form and structure, these birds are very 

 powerfully made ; intended for rapine, they 

 possess corresponding organs of great muscular 

 strength, both to pursue and to tear, and to hold 

 their prey when secured. In the wings of those 

 possessing the most strong and rapid flight, we 

 have a lengthened and accuminated form, narrow 

 feathers, but of firm consistency, and when dis- 

 played or spread presenting an even surface of 

 resistance to the air. The moving muscles are 

 large and powerful, particularly the pectorals, 

 which are furnished with an expanded insertion 



fish that have floated to the shores of the sandbars ; I 

 saw several of them thus occupied while descending the 

 Mississippi," (vol. i. p. 87.) This is at variance with 

 every thing I have observed regarding the habits of the 

 British Peregrine ; but in confinement, I have knows 

 the young to have been fed upon trouts. 



