ORDER ACCIPITRES. 197 



brown feathers, edged with reddish, and those of the lower part 

 are whitish, with longitudinal brown spots, of an oval form, 

 occupying their centre. These spots are successively trans- 

 formed into transversal blackish lines, and the plumage of the 

 back becomes more uniform, and of a brown colour, radiated 

 crosswise with dark ash colour : the throat and bottom of the 

 neck become whiter. The caudal quills, brown above, with 

 pairs of reddish spots, exhibit below pale bands, which dimi- 

 nish in breadth with age. The cere and feet are sometimes 

 yellow, sometimes a greenish-blue : but a triangular spot on 

 the cheeks is the sign by which this species is known at all 

 ages. M. Savigny adds to this the white extremity of the 

 tail. 



The common falcon, which is usual enough in France, is 

 also found in Switzerland, Germany, and Poland, in Italy, 

 Spain, Rhodes, Cyprus, Malta, and the other islands of the 

 Mediterranean. Wherever it exists, it prefers mountainous 

 and rocky countries. It is, perhaps, of all birds the most 

 courageous in proportion to its size : it does not approach its 

 prey sideways, like the hawk, and some other accipitres. It 

 drops perpendicularly upon it ; devovirs it on the spot if it be 

 large, or carries it off, rising perpendicularly, if it be not too 

 heavy. It frequently attacks the kite, either to exercise its 

 own courage, or deprive the latter of its prey. Such are the 

 habits which have always been regarded as peculiar to the 

 falcon. It appears not to descend from the mountains in 

 summer, except in search of food, when it is not to be found 

 on these elevations, and it never removes from them in winter 

 to hunt in the plains, but when constrained by famine and the 

 rigour of the season. M. Vieillot, indeed, quotes the authority 

 of one of his correspondents, whose observations, made in the 

 plains of Champagne, where the falcons arrive in the month 

 of August, are somewhat different. He reports that he has 

 seen these birds hunting singly, or in couples, and darting with 

 extreme rapidity from a hillock of earth, or the low branch of 



