9426 Notices of Books. 



thought it needful (with the above exception) to describe the form, 

 size or colour of the birds which may there be seen ; I have given, for the 

 convenience of readers at a distance, should these pages be perused by 

 any such, a reference to one or more plates of each species and of its 

 egg, in every instance in which I have been able satisfactorily to 

 do so. In conclusion, I have only to add that, as the following pages 

 contain very little original matter, I have done my best to insure that 

 their contents, if not original, should at least be accurate. With this 

 view I have, as far as possible, abstained from inserting any statements 

 of the correctness of which I have felt at all doubtful, and whenever I 

 have deviated from this rule I have indicated in the text any doubts 

 which I have entertained. I postpone till the completion of this 

 Catalogue a reference to the authors from whose works I have drawn 

 my principal materials, and also my acknowledgments to those orni- 

 thological friends to whose kind assistance I have been greatly 

 indebted in studying the Natural History of the birds of prey, and in 

 arranging the collection to which these pages are intended to refer." 



" Southern Caracara (Senex Australis). — The southern caracara is 

 found within very restricted geographical limits, which contrast curiously 

 with the wide range of Polyborus tharus. Mr. Darwin, who describes 

 this bird in the ' Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle,' under the 

 synonym of Milvago leucnrus, thus defines its geographical distribu- 

 tion : — 'The Milvago leucurus is exceedingly numerous at the Falk- 

 land Islands, and, as an old sealer who had long frequented these 

 seas remarked to me, this Archipelago appears to be their metropolis. 

 I was informed by the same authority that they are found on the 

 Diego Ramirez Rocks, the II Defonso Islands, and on some others, 

 but never on the mainland of Tierra del Fuego. This statement I can 

 corroborate to a certain degree, as I never saw one in the southern 

 part of Tierra del Fuego, near Cape Horn, which was twice visited 

 during our voyage. They are not found on Georgia or on the other 

 antarctic islands.' Mr. Darwin adds the following remarks on the 

 habits of this species : — 'In many respects these hawks very closely 

 resemble in their habits the Polyborus Brasiliensis. * They live on 

 the flesh of dead animals, and on marine productions. On the Ramirez 

 Rocks, which support no vegetation, and therefore no land animals, 

 their entire sustenance must depend upon the sea. At the Falkland 

 Islands they were extraordinarily tame and fearless, and constantly 



" * Mr. Darwin refers, under the name of Polyborus Brasiliensis, to tbe Brazilian 

 caracara, which I have designated in these pages by the prior synonym of Polyborus 

 tharus." 



