140 GKALL.E. 



afforded in hawking, is by no means a rare bird, or confined 

 to any particular part of the country ; and as it is a bird of 

 peculiar and conspicuous appearance, and, though not very 

 useful anywhere, rather ornamental in some situations, it is 

 a bird known to almost everybody. 



Whether watching its prey by the waters, standing on the 

 tops of trees, or making its way through the air, which it 

 often does at very considerable elevations, and with a pecu- 

 liarly hoarse clangulous sound, it has an imposing appear- 

 ance, and would induce those who have not the opportunity 

 of seeing it closely, to suppose that it is a very large and 

 powerful bird ; and in its lineal dimensions it is very con- 

 siderable, being four inches longer than the golden eagle, 

 and only about a foot less in the stretch of the wings. Its 

 length is about forty inches, and its breadth about five feet 

 and a half ; and though when it flies the neck is doubled up 

 in the manner that has been stated, the feet are thrown so 

 far backward, that the body altogether seems almost as long 

 as if it were the neck, and not the feet, that gave additional 

 length. That habit too takes off the goose-like form that 

 it would have if it flew with the neck extended, and so 

 gives it a more compact, and, consequently, formidable 

 appearance. 



If its flight is seen nearly from below, it appears to be by 

 no means ungraceful ; but the case is different if it be seen 

 obliquely, and especially if nearly on a level. Estimating 

 from the cube of the breadth, its weight, to give the same 

 steady flight as the eagle, without taking the different struc- 

 ture of their muscles into the account, should be about five 

 pounds, and it weighs only about three pounds ; being thus 

 the lightest of all British birds in proportion to its lineal 

 dimensions : for the barn-owl, which is the lightest of the 

 owls in proportion to its wings, should, estimated in the pro- 

 portions of the heron, weigh only half a pound, and it 



