ORDER ACCIPITRES. 203 



tarsi furnished with feathers, and the tail exceeds the wings in 

 length, although the latter are very long. 



Etymological affinities, which are so often found to throw 

 light on many subjects, seem to have contributed to obscure 

 the natural history of the gerfalcon. Belon traces the origin 

 of this name to the word gyps, a vulture, and falco ; and the 

 word gyrfalco seems immediately formed from geyer, the 

 German for a vulture, a.nd falco. 



This association of terms so incompatible, designating birds 

 of different genera, might seem extraordinary, did we not 

 consider the state of natural science at the time when it was 

 formed, and if we had not plenty of examples of names indi- 

 cative of the uncertainty of naturalists respecting the proper 

 allocation of certain animals in the scale of being. The 

 vagueness, however, of such terms can be easily rectified, by a 

 more intimate acquaintance with the true characters of spe- 

 cies. But an inconvenience of another nature has resulted 

 from Belon's exclusive application of the Greek term hierax, 

 equivalent to the Arabian word saqr, to a species which, per- 

 haps, has no existence, or is, at all events, doubtful : neither 

 of these words was restrained in its acceptation to a single 

 bird. They were used in a general way, to designate a class 

 of birds venerated by the ancient Egyptians, who moreover 

 distinguished the hieraces (falcons, hawks, and gosshawks) from 

 the vultures, which were held in equal veneration, but from 

 different motives. An attentive examination of the Egyptian 

 monuments has proved that it was the common gosshawk 

 which was represented on the temples, obelisks, and parti- 

 cularly on the Isiac table, where even the distribution of its 

 colours is observable. If, then, the hierofalco, the falco 

 sacer, the sacre of Belon and others, can be considered as 

 forming the peculiar type of any one species of falcon, there is 

 no reason why these denominations should be applied to the 

 gerfalcon, rather than to the common falcon. Indeed, it seems 

 much less natural to admit them into the synonymy of the 



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