BIRDS. RAPACIOUS. Falcons. 495 



Inhabits Cayenne.— Is about t./enty-one inches long : The bill and claws are pale horn colour, the 

 latter being tipt with black. Mr Latham fays that the body is mixed black and rufty, and that its 

 under parts are reddifli, having tranfverfe brown ftreaks. 



*** FALCONS and HAWKS.— FA LC ONES. 



The birds of this fubdivifion are lefs in fize than the former, and their legs are univer- 

 sally naked. 



The limits between the Falcons and Hawks, and the Eagles, are by no means well afccrtained, but, 

 in compliance with the authority of Dr Gmelin, the fubdivifion is here preferved : It is extremely 

 difficult, through the whole genus, to mark with accuracy the diftincbions of fpecies and varieties; as, 

 befides the difference between the fexes of the fame fpecies, which is often very confiderable, and the 

 various appearances the fame fpecies puts on at different periods of life, they are very apt to change 

 their appearances, and the colours of the feathers, and even of the cere, in confequer.ee of the influ- 

 ence of climate, and by difference in the manner of feeding ; hybrid generation is likewife a fertile 

 fource of variety through this genus, as well as in moft parts of the clafs : All thefe concurrent caufes 

 of variation and obfeurity produce confiderable dubiety to the ornithologift, and muft occafion the 

 obfervations of different naturalifts to difagree ; but the following lift, it is hoped, will be found per- 

 haps as. perfect as the nature of the fubject will admit. 



The art of Falconry, or of training Hawks and Falcons to the chace of Antelopes, Cranes, Herons, 

 Hares, Partridges, &c. which has been in all ages familiar among many of the Tartar and other na- 

 tions, is, in Europe, entrufted to the care of particular people who have reduced it to a kind of 

 fcience, being employed by the great to contribute to their amufement. Almoft every fpecies of the 

 genus may be trained to this employment, though fome fpecies are more expert than others, and 

 fame are better adapted to particular kinds of fport, or to the chace of particular kinds of game. On 

 this fubjecl; confult d'Efparon, Ars falconaria. Francof. 1617. 



The Engliih names ufed in this genus may appear lefs fyftematic than in moft others, but in this I 

 have chiefly followed the examples of Mr Latham and Mr Pennant, who have preferved very pro- 

 perly the ufual names employed in England, and have affixed names to the foreign fpecies as near 

 as poffible to thofe of the Britifh kinds which they refemble the moft. In general thofe named 

 Flawks are fmaller than fuch as are called Falcons, but this is not univerfally the cafe ; perhaps it 

 would have been better to have named them all Falcons, with a fpecific addition for each ; but it is 

 fometimes dangerous to depart too boldly from the track already followed by men of high and de- 

 ferved reputation. — T. 



g 2 I . Oriental Hawk. — 45. Falco orientalis. 6j, 



The legs are leaden coloured ; the upper part of the body and the head are dufky brown, 

 the fpace above the eyes being ftreaked with rufl colour, and the lower part of the 

 body mixed brown and rutty ; the tail is fpotted with white. 

 F. orientalis. Lath. ind. orn. i. 22. n. 44. — Oriental Hawk. Lath. fyn. i. ,34. * n. 7. c. 



Inhabits Japan. — Is feventeen inches long, of which the tail is eight : The bill is large, its upper 

 mandible, and the claWs are black, the lower mandible being yellow ; the head is more dufky than 

 the body ; the plumage has a black ftreak in the middle of each feather ; the fecondary coverts of 

 the wings are fpotted with white. 



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