32 CLASS AVES. 



The Gerfalcon (F. candicans, F. cinereus, and F. sacer.) 

 Gm. Enl. 210, 462, and Hist, des Oiseaux, i. pi. xiv. 



Edw. 55. 



One-fourth larger than the falcon, is the most esteemed 

 of all birds for falconry. It is brought principally 

 from the north. Its common plumage is brown above, 

 with a border of paler point to each feather, and 

 transverse lines on the covertures, and quill feathers : 

 whitish underneath, with long brown spots, which 

 change with age on the thighs into transverse lines : 

 the tail is radiated brown and grayish, but it varies 

 so much in the prevalence of brown or white, that 

 there are some with the body all white, with only 

 a brown spot on each quill of the mantle : the feet 

 and membrane of the beak are sometimes yellow and 

 sometimes blue. 



This genus has not been adopted generally, as the 

 character is not constant, and only found in the adult 

 specimens. 



The second section of the great genus Falco is 

 that of birds of prey called ignoble, because they can- 

 not be easily employed in falconry; a tribe much more 

 numerous than that of the noble, and which moreover 

 it is necessary to subdivide considerably. Their 

 longest wing feather is almost always the fourth, and 

 the first is very shorty which has the same efiect as if 

 the wing had been cut obliquely at the end ; hence, 

 cceteris -paribus, their flight is weaker : their beak is 

 also much less armed because it has not the lateral 

 teeth near the point, but only a slight festoon in 

 the middle of its length. 



