ORDER ACCIPITRES. 235 



unravel the tangled web of synonymy, and to dwell on the de- 

 scription of external characters. In this part of our work, it 

 behoves us to generalize our views as much as possible, and 

 to reject everything which has no bearing on the philosophy 

 of the subject. In our former supplementary parts we have 

 certainly entered more into the kind of details to which we 

 now allude ; but they were better authenticated, and more 

 important in themselves than most of the same sort that can 

 be offered in the department of Ornithology. 



In fact, the conflicting accounts of naturalists in this depart- 

 ment of Zoology are almost beyond belief What with errors 

 of many and the corrections of more, they have made " con- 

 fusion worse confounded." An immensity of labour and 

 research is still requisite to rectify the very defective nomen- 

 clature of the eagles and of the birds of prey in general. How, 

 indeed, considering the different appearances according to 

 age and sex, can we presume to pronounce affirmatively on 

 foreign species, when it is recollected how long a period 

 elapsed before the identity of the osprey and pygargus was 

 ascertained, birds constantly found in Europe ? A complete 

 and judicious monograph of these birds would be of the 

 highest utility to the science, but it would require a continued 

 series of observations for many years, a thing impossible with 

 regard to beings which live at such a distance from our 

 dwellings, and whose spoils exhibit only variable signs, more 

 calculated for the multiplication than the detection of errors. 

 To form an idea of the extreme difficulty of such a task, it is 

 sufficient to consult the Observationes ZoologiccB of the pro- 

 found Hermann, who, notwithstanding his very careful and 

 painful description of numerous individuals, has left us little 

 but his own personal uncertainties and doubts upon the 

 subject. 



The figure is from a specimen in the Museum at Edinburgh. 

 It seems likely to be the male of Daudin's Faico destructor. 



The figure of the Brazilian Kite, Pandlon Caracara 9 ap- 



R 2 



