MARCH. 



OUR BIRDS OF PREY. 



By AUBYN TREVOR- BATTYE. 



II. HAWKS, BUZZARDS, KITES AND HARRIERS. 



IN hawking language Hawks and Falcons are distinguished into 

 short-winged or long-winged hawks. Gamekeepers and country 

 persons will do well to bear in mind that Falcons have notched 

 beaks, wings pointed, and as long as their tails, and the eyes 

 brown; and that hawks have " festooned " beaks, wings "round" 

 and much shorter than the tail ; with yellow eyes. The Falcons, 

 from their habit of soaring and stooping upon their quarry, were 

 in the ancient days of falconry accounted the nobler birds. The 

 Hawks mostly course their prey through the air as a greyhound 

 pursues a hare. 



The Gos-hawk (the Goose-hawk) was never other than an 

 uncommon bird in England, and although in the beginning of our 

 century it was reported as breeding in the pine forests of Scotland, 

 its presence now is confined to examples, almost invariably imma- 

 ture, which annually reach these shores in the spring and autumn 

 migrations. The bird is only alluded to now with the object of 



