ORDER ACCIPITRES. 195 



and lower parts of a golden tint (the distinctive character of 

 the male), cannot be considered as sufficient. As to the pow- 

 der of which Bruce speaks, it is by no means, even according 

 to Sonnini himself, a remarkable singularity, or one of the 

 multifarious modifications of nature, but a simple effect of 

 the moulting, more perceptible in consequence of the bulk of 

 the animal. In fact, this powder comes from the pellicle 

 which envelopes the feathers at their first production, which 

 follows at first their progression, being elongated with them, 

 and finally dries up as the barbs shoot forth, and becomes 

 divided into very fine light parcels, the quantity of which 

 depends on the number of feathers which are developed at the 

 same sime. This pellicle is usually of the same colour as the 

 feathers, as Bruce has well remarked. 



The Falcons. — Linnaeus has comprehended under the de- 

 nomination falco, the eagles, balbuzzards, kites, and many 

 other rapacious birds, as well as the falcons properly so called, 

 and which subsequent naturalists have found the necessity of 

 separating from that division. Notwithstanding, however, these 

 separations, the species of which the genus Falcon remains 

 composed, undergo in the course of years so many variations 

 in their plumage, that they are scarcely yet distinguished with 

 any great degree of exactitude. But the generic characters 

 have gained a greater degree of precision : they consist in a 

 beak curved from the base, the upper mandible of which, 

 crooked at its extremity, is armed on each side and towards 

 the end with one or sometimes two teeth, more or less project- 

 ing; the lower one of which, being convex underneath, is 

 sloped at the point. From the centre of their circular nostrils 

 arises a pliant and conical tubercle : the tongue is fleshy, 

 sloped, and canaliculated : the tarsi are short : the feet are 

 provided with strong toes, of which the external have a mem- 

 brane at the base, and curved claws, acerated, and nearly 

 equal. The three external pen-feathers of the wings are 



