CHAPTER XII. 



THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY, OR ACCIPITRINES, Order ACCIPITRES. 



MERLINS. 



THE diurnal birds of prey were 

 long classed in a single group with 

 the owls and the ospreys, but first 

 the former and then the latter 

 were divided off; and there is 

 little doubt that view is correct, 

 although, to our thinking, the 

 ospreys appear to connect the two 



groups very intimately. Exclusive of the ospreys, the diurnal birds of prey, 

 as they may be convenient^ designated, include falcons, hawks, kites, eagles, 

 buzzards, harriers, and vultures, together with the so-called secretary-bird of 

 Africa and the American vultures : the two latter forming very aberrant groups, 

 one or both of which are by some ornithologists regarded as constituting 

 distinct orders. By the older naturalists the Accipitrines were placed at the head 

 of the birds, but by common consent they have now to yield this position to the 

 Passerines, which are, on the whole, the most highly organised members of the 

 entire class. It must, however, be remembered that, for their own particular mode 

 of life, the organisation of these birds is as perfect as it is possible to conceive ; 

 and, from the mechanical point of view, the spectacle of a falcon swooping on its- 

 quarry presents us with one of the very highest developments of bird-life. 



