THE 



CALCUTTA JOURNAL 



OE 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



On the Affinities of the Falconidce ; being an attempt at a 

 Natural Arrangement of this Family. By Wm. Jameson, 

 Esq. Bengal Medical Service. 



The number of species, and the numerous and various modi- 

 fications which they present, have rendered the Falconidce 

 the most interesting and complicated group for illustration 

 in the whole ornithological kingdom. The various arrange- 

 ments which have as yet been proposed, are more or less 

 unsatisfactory, probably from authors not taking properly 

 into consideration the affinities which the different genera 

 bear to each other, which may be owing (at least in several 

 cases) to the extent of the collections examined ; for in order 

 to render such an arrangement satisfactory, a vast series of 

 specimens must be examined to shew the general connexion 

 which each minor group presents. 



The views of a circular arrangement of the objects of 

 Nature, first pointed out by Werner to exist in the inanimate 

 world, has been ably taken up, and extended to the animal 

 kingdom by several authors, but first applied to insects by 

 MacLeay in his " Horae Entomological," a work which has 

 produced a new era in zoology. Advocating a similar ar- 

 rangement in ornithology, the names of Swainson and Vi- 

 gors stand prominently forward ; nor is the botanical king- 



VOL. I. NO. III. OCTOBER, 1840. 2 S 



