8s British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



ORDER ACCI PITR ES, 



THE important Order of the Accipitres includes the remaining Raptorial birds, 

 after the Owls, and is divided into two families, the Vultu7'idcs and the 

 Falconidce. With the Vulturida;, that are distinguished by their necks being either 

 bare or only covered with down, this work has no concern, as they are all in- 

 habitants of warm countries, feeders upon carrion and garbage, and could not 

 maintain an existence in the British Isles to which only one or two individuals 

 have been drifted through some accident. The British Ornithologist who treats 

 to-day of the Falconidce has a sorrowful task, feeling that the pages he devotes to 

 them should be edged -mXh black, as he can only pen obituary notices of the 

 majority, the traps, the poison, and the gun of the game preserver — to whose 

 keepers a single Hawk existing on the properties they have the charge of would 

 be considered a disgrace — having effectually exterminated the most interesting of 

 the once resident species. It is but poor satisfaction to read in the admirable 

 pages of Montagu and Macgillivra}' their animated descriptions of the Eagles, 

 Harriers, Kites, and Buzzards which, in their day, were still fairly numerous as 

 ornaments of our moors, woodlands, and mountains ; the Naturalist would greatly 

 prefer to have the opportunity of seeing these fine birds still ranging and circling 

 in the air. There are but a few remote spots left where one or two may still 

 maintain a precarious existence, but the Sparrow- Hawk and the Kestrel are at the 

 present day the only two species that can be spoken of as generally common. 



The Falconidce differ greatly from the Owls in having their plumage hard and 

 compact instead of being soft and downy ; in their hunting by day instead of by 

 night ; while the swiftest of them capture their prey after pursuit in the air, for 

 the most part, instead of pouncing it upon the ground. Their heads are fairly 



