312 On the Affinities of the Falconida. 



and Gypaetos ; and the latter into other two minor groups, 

 viz., the Noble and Ignoble Birds of Prey. Under the Noble 

 Birds of Prey, are comprehended the genera Falco and 

 Hierofalco ; and in the Ignoble, the genera Aquila, Haliae- 

 tus, Pandion, Circaetus, Harpyia, Morphnus, Astur, Nisus, 

 Milvus, Pernis, Buteo, and Circus. But the genera will be 

 found, when properly examined, to be arranged in groups 

 which in many instances are not at all connected to each 

 other. Thus he has the genus Hierofalco (a genus which 

 has as its type the Falco islandicus, and which we have re- 

 tained as a connecting link between the genus Falco and 

 Cerchnis, it presenting all the characters, with the excep- 

 tion of the rather shorter tarsus and wings, common to the 

 typical species of the genus Falco properly so called,) follow- 

 ing that of Aquila, the genus Nisus following that of Milvus, 

 whose affinity to each other is distant, or, in other words, 

 there are many genera which come between in order to con- 

 nect them. In other parts of his arrangement he follows 

 out, to a certain extent, the principles so well advocated and 

 beautifully illustrated by MacLeay and others in Britain. 



In this rapid sketch we must notice a few of Cuvier's con- 

 temporaries who have written upon this interesting depart- 

 ment ; and there is no one who deserves more than the 

 celebrated Temminck, who by his profound views, acute 

 reasoning, and excellent generalizations, has done so much 

 for the advancement of ornithological science, but who by 

 his inveterate enmity to new genera, especially in the Fal- 

 conidae, shews that in many cases he is as much guided by 

 theory as by practice. 



Temminck, in his excellent manual, divides the Diurnal 

 Birds of Prey into four groups — viz., Vulture, Cathartes, Gy- 

 paetos, and Falco, the last of which he again subdivides 

 into six divisions. In the first of these he includes all the 

 Falcons properly so called; in the second, the Eagles; in 

 the third, the Goshawks; in the. fourth, the Kites; in the 



