On a new genus of Falconidce. 65 



occurrence ; but it formerly might have been more generally dis- 

 tributed. The species which we can imagine to have been best 

 known to former times are the P. Pondicerianiis and flavitorquiSf 

 which are diffused over the whole of the Indian continent : the 

 former species more particularly, which is now also found to be 

 dispersed over a great extent of the Eastern Archipelago. P. 

 uilexandri appears to have been the bird sent from Ceylon to the 

 Macedonian warriour from whom it derives its specifick name ; 

 Ceylon, or the antient Tabrobana, being the principal resort, 

 even down to the present moment, of that species. And it is 

 probable also that the Romans, particularly in later times, re- 

 ceived a great number of the same species from that island, with 

 which they maintained an extensive and regular commercial in- 

 tercourse after its discovery under Claudius. If to these birds we 

 add the P. torquatus, which is the species that agrees most in- 

 timately with the descriptions of Pliny, and after him of Apu- 

 leius, and which is generally scattered over the Indian, as well as 

 the African continent on the eastern side, we shall probably have 

 before us all the species known to the ancients of this classical 

 group. 



ON A NEW GENUS OF FALCONIDiE. 



Those inquirers into nature who have been accustomed to con- 

 sult her works with a view to the affinities by which they are 

 connected together, cannot fail to have remarked, that, in groups 

 which are denominated osculant, or, in other words, which form 

 the passage between neighbouring groups of a higher degree 

 and denomination than themselves, a greater diversity of form, 

 and a more frequent interchange of character is discernible, 

 than in groups more strictly typical, and more distant from the 

 point of junction. In passing from one leading form to apother, 

 nature seems to advance with greater caution and a slower pace 

 than usual : she appears to fluctuate between a manifest reluctance 

 to relinquish the tracts which she has left behind and an anxiety 

 to anticipate those upon which she is about to enter 3 alternately 

 retracing or advancing her steps, and nearing with somewhat of 

 an apparently wayward indecision the different points of each. 



Vol. II. E 



