THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 115 



given is contained in Mr. Vigors' Essay on the groups 

 of the Falconidae, pubhshed in the first volume of the 

 Zoological Journal. He has there shown that the 

 Falconidae naturally form five strongly marked and well 

 defined tribes or stiqies, of which the Eagles, the 

 Hawks, the true Falcons, the Buzzards, and the Kites, 

 are respectively the types. He has likewise pointed 

 out the genera into which these tribes may be resolved, 

 indicating the species that belong to each of them ; and 

 has distinctly traced the continued chain of affinities by 

 which they are connected to each other, at the same 

 time that he has placed their distinctive characters in 

 a clear and discriminating light. 



Our present business is with the true Falcons, which, 

 together with the Hawks, constitute the typical or nor- 

 mal subdivision of the family. These two tribes are 

 together characterized by the shortness of their beaks, 

 the curvature of which commences from the veiy base ; 

 and the more or less apparent dentation of their upper 

 mandibles : their prey is usually taken in the air. The 

 true Falcons are distinguished from the Hawks by the 

 length of their wings, the points of which reach the 

 extremity of the tail ; and by the second quill-feather 

 being the longest of the series, while in the Hawks it 

 is the fourth that is elongated beyond the rest. The 

 wings of the Falcons are consequently not only longer, 

 but more pointed than those of the Hawks ; and they 

 are thus enabled to raise themselves to a much more 

 lofty pitch in their flight. But the length of their 

 quill-feathers, as M. Cuvier remarks, diminishes their 

 vertical power, and renders the flight of the birds, when 

 the air is still, very oblique, constraining. them, if they 

 are desirous of rising in a straight line, to fly against 

 the wind. Their great powers of wing, the rapidity of 

 their flight, their docility, and their courage, or rather 



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