OF SELBORNE. 



377 



mandible on each side : its tail, or train, was short in 

 proportion to the bulk of its body : yet the wings, when 

 closed, did not extend to the end of the train. From 

 its large and fair proportions it might be supposed to 

 have been a female ; but I was not permitted to cut 

 open the specimen. For one of the birds of prey, which 

 are usually lean, this was in high case: in its craw 

 were many barleycorns, which probably came from the 

 crop of the wood pigeon, on which it was feeding when 

 shot : for voracious birds do not eat grain ; but, when 

 devouring their quarry, with undistinguishing vehe- 

 mence swallow bones and feathers, and all matters, 

 indiscriminately. This falcon was probably driven 

 from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where 

 they are known to breed, by rigorous weather and 

 deep snows that had lately fallen. 



PEREtilUNR FALCON. 



