7394 Birds. 



observations on the eggs of birds as associated in Natural Orders or 

 Tribes, but I reserve this until my list is complete, contenting myself 

 with stating that the number, shape, colour, position, and even the 

 surface of birds' eggs, afford characters by which the Tribe is often 

 indicated with great clearness. Nothing can be more artificial than 

 the Vigorsian or quinary arrangement of birds, and it is only wlien 

 this is totally disregarded that the egg, the nest, the period of incu- 

 bation, can be rendered available in classification. Throughout the 

 animal kingdom the earliest period of vitality is that which affords 

 the most reliable and constant characters. I would not, and do not, 

 undervalue the differences of the adult, but those who have studied 

 the beautiful theory of representation will readily admit how com- 

 pletely the same colour, figure and admeasurements may be repeated 

 in birds that have no physiological characters in common. Hence 

 the difficulty of trusting to those characters alone. 



Then with regard to the omission of so large a number of birds that 

 appear in our lists. I am not unaware that, in the majority of such 

 cases, the nest and eggs have been described by Temminck, Richard- 

 son or Wilson, and that the descriptions have been transferred to 

 works treating of British Birds ; but, so far as I can ascertain, in all 

 such instances, no British nest has ever been examined and described, 

 and therefore I cannot think there is any utility in transplanting to ray 

 list definitions that certainly have no reference to British individuals, 

 and, possibly, not even to British species. 



Lastly, with regard to the quotations from the ' Zoologist,' those 

 which I have made were published so long ago that they have probably 

 been forgotten. I think that when the applicable passage has been 

 printed more than twelve years I have only referred to it; prior to that 

 period I have sometimes quoted it entire. 



Order I. RAPTORES. 



Golden Eagle, Falco Chrysaetos. 



Situation. Cliffs facing the sea in Scotland. 



Materials. Large rotten sticks, ling, grass. Generally an immense 

 mass, with scarcely any depression in the middle. We have very 

 slight evidence of the golden eagle now breeding in Britain ; Pennant 

 informs us that it builds on cliffs near the deer forests in Scotland and 

 on the Snowdon range in Wales. Willoughby tells of a nest in the 

 Peak of Derbyshire, and in the 'History of Northumberland' we 

 learned that " it formerly bred on the highest and steepest part of 

 Cheviot." 



