HABITS OF BIRDS TALONS OF HAWKS. 257 



easy of access, but even in situations where, after having 

 entered at a narrow round aperture, she has to descend for 

 nearly an arm's length, almost perpendicularly to reach the 

 nest. Through this same entrance also she has to take her 

 young ones when hatched, before they can be launched on 

 their natural element water. 



I could give numberless instances of birds and other 

 animals performing actions and adopting habits which to all 

 appearance must be most difficult and most unsuited to 

 them ; all these prove that we are not to judge of nature by 

 any fixed and arbitrary rules, and still less should we attempt 

 to bring all the countless anomalies of animal life into any 

 system of probabilities of our own devising. The more we 

 investigate the capabilities of living animals of every descrip- 

 tion, the more our powers of belief extend. For my own 

 part indeed, having devoted many happy years to wandering 

 in the woods and fields, at all hours and at all seasons, I have 

 seen so many strange and unaccountable things connected 

 with animal life, that now nothing appears to me too won- 

 derful to be believed. 



The feet and claws of different kinds of hawks vary very 

 much, being beautifully adapted to the manner in which each 

 bird strikes its prey. If we examine the claws and feet of 

 the peregrine falcon, the merlin, or any of the other long- 

 winged hawks, including the varieties of these noble birds, 

 all of whom I believe were called in the age of falconry "The 

 Ger Falcon," such as the Iceland, the Greenland, and the 

 Norwegian falcon, we find that their power consists rather in 

 their strength of talon and foot than in the sharp needle-like 

 claws of the hen harrier, the sparrowhawk, the goshawk, &c. 

 The rationale of this difference seems to be that the falcons 

 strike their prey by main force to the ground in the midst of 

 their flight : whilst the other hawks usually pounce on the 

 animals on which they feed, and take them unawares on the 

 ground instead of by fair pursuit and swiftness of wing. The 

 sparrowhawk and hen harrier seldom chase a bird to any 

 distance on the wing. 



I have spoken of the peregrine, the Iceland, the Greenland 

 falcon, and also the falcon of Norway as being distinct 

 species. This, however, is a point to be decided by naturalists 

 more skilful in the anatomy and osteology of birds than I 

 am myself. Scribimus indocti ! My remarks are merely the 

 result of my own unscientific observations, aided by the 



