OSPREY OR FISH-HAWK. 365 



part 5 1 twelfths, at the lower 4^ twelfths. It is much flattened ; its 

 rings 96 in number, only partially ossified. The contractor muscles 

 are large, as are the sterno-tracheal, and there is a distinct inferior la- 

 ryngeal muscle on each side, proceeding to the membrane between the 

 last ring of the trachea and the first bronchial ring. The right bronchus 

 has 18, the left 15 half rings. 



Why should the Osprey have the intestine so much more elongated 

 and attenuated than that of Falcons, Buzzards, and most other birds 

 of this family ? Its capacity is probably about the same as that of an 

 ordinary Hawk of the same size. Is a long narrow intestine best 

 adapted for assimilating fish ? The White-headed Sea Eagle, which 

 is also a fish-eater, has such an intestine, very difi^erent from the short 

 and wide intestine of the flesh-eating Golden Eagle. Or is it because 

 it plunges into the sea, and thus is liable to sudden shocks, which have 

 less effect upon a slender coil of intestine ? But many plunging birds, 

 such as Gannets and Terns, have the intestine wide ; and the fish-eat- 

 ing palmipedes are not furnished with intestines so attenuated ; while 

 the Herons, on the contrary, are. It is a subject for ingenious specu- 

 lation. 



PEREGRINE FALCON OR GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 



Falco peregrinvs, Linn. 



PLATE XVI. Vol. I. p. 85. 



This species is rare in the wooded districts of the Fur Countries, 

 near the trading posts ; but Dr Richardson frequently saw it whilst 

 on his march across the Barren Grounds, and Captain Parby brought 

 some specimens of it from Melville Peninsula. It is a summer visitor 

 of the northern parts of North America, and frequents the coast of 

 Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea, with the Barren Grounds, but is 

 very seldom seen in the interior. It arrives there in June, and departs 

 in September. 



According to my friend Dr Bachman, the Peregrine Falcon is 



