Classification of Birds. 81 



racters. The rasorial type of the family he considers to be that re- 

 markable Australian bird, first described and called by Latham the 

 New Holland vulture, but which some later writers have noticed as 

 more closely allied to the rasorial order. This, in fact, is the opinion 

 we arrived at after examining two perfect specimens of this bird, in 

 which the bill appeared to have more of the rasorial than the rap- 

 torial form, and we recollect that the nostrils were partly covered 

 Avith a protecting scale. The tail, which he acknowledges possesses 

 more feathers than the true vultures, also exhibited that duplex 

 or folded form possessed by many Gallinaceous birds, and the feet 

 and legs were certainly as much akin to those of the Cracidae and 

 other Rasores, as to those of the rapacious order.* Much, no doubt, 

 as to its real station in the ornithological circle, will depend upon 

 its peculiar habits and economy, of which we are at present igno- 

 rant, but we think it is as likely to prove a Raptorial form of the 

 Rasorial order, as the Rasorial type of the Raptores. The fissiros- 

 tral type of the family is distinctly marked in the bearded vulture 

 of the Alps, forming the genus Gypaaetus, and which in its form 

 and habits marks the direct passage to the eagles in the family of 

 the Falconidce. This division, he observes, exhibits the perfection 

 of the order ; its members are distinguished by a much shorter and 

 sharper bill more or less toothed,. and by very acute and strongly 

 curved talons ; they are lighter and more graceful in form, and 

 more courageous than the vultures; they prey, also, almost exclusively 

 upon living animals, and the geographic range of the family is al- 

 most universal. The primary divisions of the Falconidae he con- 

 siders typified by the following genera — Falco, Accipiier, Buteo, 

 Cymi7idis, and Aquila, the two first constituting the typical and 

 subtypical divisions, the remaining three, the aberrant. The ana- 

 logies of the family with the tribes of the Insessores stand thus ; 

 Falco, - - Conirostres, 



Accipiter, - - Dentirostres, 



Buteo, - - Fissirostres, 



Cymindis, - - Tenuirostres, 



Aquila, • - Rasores. 



These analogies and relations he proceeds to trace with great skill, 

 and we regret that our limits will not permit us to follow them in de- 

 tail. He then enters into the examination of the five leading ge- 

 neric groups, commencing with the genus Falco, as the most typi- 

 cal of the whole family. The subgenus Falco, the first noticed, 



* For a figure and description of this bird, see Vol. II. plate 66, Illustra- 

 tions of Ornithology, by Sir William Jardine, Mr Selby, &c. 

 VOL. IJ. NO. 7- F 



