116 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, 



their superior voracity, brought them for a considerable 

 period into general use for the pursuit and capture of 

 other birds, and thus gave rise to the Art of Falconry. 

 But the invention of fire-arms has long superseded the 

 necessity for their employment, and this art, notwith- 

 standmg a few occasional attempts to revive it, has now 

 sunk into almost total oblivion. 



The generic group to which modern ornithologists 

 have restricted the name of Falco, is especially charac- 

 terized by the strong tooth-like process of the upper 

 mandible, which is received in a corresponding notch 

 in the lower. The tarsi are short, strong, and reticu- 

 lated anteriorly ; and the first and second quill-feathers 

 of the wings are deeply notched on the inner side near 

 their extremities. Their nostrils are uniformly rounded, 

 and have a tubercular elevation in the centre; their 

 eyes are deeply immersed ; their tongues fleshy, chan- 

 nelled, and bifid at the point ; and their claws nearly 

 equal, and extremely sharp both at the points and 

 edges. Thus restricted the Falcons still form a nume- 

 rous group, M. Vieillot reckoning no fewer than nine- 

 teen species, and M. Cuvier a yet greater number. 



Of these the best known and the most remarkable 

 is the Peregrine Falcon, so called from its periodical 

 migrations. It is only, however, of late years that its 

 characters have been well understood, several other 

 species having been formerly confounded with it ; while 

 mere varieties of age, sex, and climate were regarded as 

 distinct species. For the complete elucidation of its 

 history, of the changes which it undergoes, and of the 

 varieties to which it is subject, we are principally in- 

 debted to M. Bechstein, a practical ornithologist of 

 unwearied perseverance, and to Mr. Wilson of Edin- 

 burgh, who published a few years ago, in the Memoirs 

 of the Wernerian Society, an excellent paper on the 



