go BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
six or seven in number, the larger species having fewer than the smaller; they are 
suboval or elliptical, and in colour are generally of a whitish ground, spotted and 
blotched with various shades of red, and some of them are very beautiful. The 
young are at first covered with down, and remain in the nest until they are fully 
fledged. Their first plumage is generally darker than that of their parents, and 
the markings upon it are longitudinal instead of being transverse. The males are 
always smaller than the females. 
Some of the Falconide haunt the moors and fens, as the Harriers; some are 
birds of the large Woodlands and cultivated districts, as the Kite, the Gos-Hawk, 
the Sparrow-Hawk, the Buzzard, the Hobby, and the Kestrel; some are denizens 
of mountains and bare moors, as the Eagle and the Merlin; some love the cliffs 
along the coast, as the Peregrine, the Osprey, and the White-tailed Eagle; they 
are distributed all over the country, each district having its appropriate bird.* 
It must be added that all the /adconide are migratory birds, coming north in 
the spring to their breeding quarters, and, in the autumn, again “stretching their 
wings towards the south.” As soon as the young are capable of hunting for 
themselves the old birds drive them away, and the passage birds in the autumn 
are mainly composed of those of the first year. Some of the adults remain for 
the winter without migrating, if the district at this season continues to supply 
them with their food, but all the Falcons of the far north come south in attendance 
upon the migratory flocks of wild fowl. Buzzards congregate at the seasons of 
migration, and fly in large flocks at a great height in the air, whence their cry 
is often heard as they pass overhead among the clouds. 
* This description of the Falconid@ is mainly taken from Macyillivray. 
t Job xxxix, 26. 
