264 NA TURAL HISTORY OF SEL BORNE. 



Farringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.* 

 Since that time I have met with none till now. The specimen 

 mentioned above was in fine preservation, and not injured by the 

 shot : it measured forty-two inches from wing to wing, and twenty- 

 one from beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and an half 

 standing weight. This species is very robust, and wonderfully 

 formed for rapine ; its breast was plump and muscular ; its thighs 

 long, thick, and brawny ; and its legs remarkably short and well 

 set : the feet were armed with most formidable, sharp, long 

 talons : the eyelids and cere of the bill were yellow : but the irides 

 of the eyes dusky ; the beak was thick and hooked, and of a dark 

 colour, and had a jagged process near the end of the upper 

 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 barley-corns, 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 vehemence 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. 



I am, &c. 



* See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. 



