IV 



FALCONIDAE I 8 I 



politan in range, though local everywhere, and absent from many of 

 the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and America 

 south of Brazil, is dark brown above, with the short crest, head, 

 nape, and lower parts white ; the crown being streaked with 

 blackish, and a brown band which becomes in the male a series 

 of spots crossing the chest. The bill is dusky, the cere and feet 

 are bluish, and the irides yellow. The smaller Australasian P. 

 leucocephalus and the American P. carolinensis barely attain sub- 

 specific rank. A migrant to Britain, this bird formerly bred at 

 TJlles water, and not uncommonly in Scotland, where two or three 

 pairs still remain. Of old it often occupied rocky islets or ruins 

 in Highland lochs, but the nest is usually placed in other coun- 

 tries on trees or sea-cliffs, and exceptionally on the ground ; trees 

 being the favourite site in America, in which country colonies are 

 sometimes formed, consisting of even three hundred pairs. The 

 bulky flattish pile of sticks and turf, lined with moss, grass, or 

 seaweed, is invariably placed near water, and contains three, or 

 rarely four, whitish eggs, beautifully blotched or overspread with 

 dark brown, crimson, or claret-colour, varied with orange, buff or 

 grey, New World specimens being usually duller. Surface- 

 swimming fish form the food, and magnificent indeed is the spectacle 

 when an Osprey, after poising itself vertically aloft, descends with 

 terrific dash and splashing plunge to rise again with its captured 

 prey grasped in its roughened toes. The graceful flight is varied 

 by many evolutions and spiral ascents, while the loud piercing 

 scream is chiefly heard at the nesting- quarters. 



Of fossil Falconine forms, excluding existing species, Lithornis 

 vultiirinus is found in the London Clay (Lower Eocene) ; from the 

 Upper Eocene of France comes Palaeocercus cuvieri and Falco 

 the former possibly from England also ; from the Lower Miocene of 

 France Teracus littoralis, Palaeohierax gervaisi, Aquila, Buteo, and 

 Milvus ; from its Middle Miocene Haliaetus and Aquila. Aquila 

 also occurs in the American Pliocene of Nebraska and Oregon; Falco 

 in the Italian ; from the drifts of Queensland we have Necrastur 

 alacer and Tapliaetus branchialis ; from the Argentine Pampean 

 of Lujan and the Post-Pampean of Monte Hermoso respectively 

 Asthenopterus minutus and Foetopterus ambiguus ; while the 

 superficial deposits and swamps of New Zealand furnish a sub- 

 fossil Circus and the giant Harpagornis moorii ; and the Mare 

 aux Songes of Mauritius Astur alphonsi. 



