1839.] On the Distribution of European Birds. 29 



characteristic of European Ornithology." How Mr. Swainson could 

 have come to such conclusions, seems to us very remarkable ; not one 

 of the statements which he has made, being at all correct. Thus of 

 the thirty-five species of diurnal rapacious birds found in Europe and 

 comprehended in the genera Vultur, Neophron, Gypaetos, Falco, Aqui- 

 la, Halicetus, Pandion, Circcetus, Astur Accipiter, Milvus, Nauclerus, 

 Elanus, Pernis, Buteo, Butaetes, and Circus, four are common to 

 Europe and Asia ; three common to Europe and Africa ; three 

 common to Europe and North America; ten common to Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa ; four common to Europe, Asia, and North America ; 

 one common to Europe, Africa (?) and North America ; one common 

 to Europe, Asia, and Australasia; one common to Europe, North and 

 South America ; one common to Europe, Asia, Africa, North and 

 South America ; and three (?) cosmopolite, or found in all the 

 different Continents of the world ; leaving only four species proper 

 to Europe, or in the proportion of 1 to 8|, and it is even doubtful at 

 present whether all the four species are confined to Europe. But 

 Mr. Swainson has marked out in a particularly prominent manner 

 the genera of Falcons and Eagles, properly so called, in order to shew 

 that the distribution of birds is not in an equal ratio with their 

 powers of flight — a statement no doubt quite correct ; but he has 

 been very unfortunate in his illustrations, for among all the tribes 

 of European birds, the Falcons and Eagles possess a most extensive 

 distribution. Thus of the nine species of Falcons (one or two of 

 which seem to be only occasional European visitants), two alone are 

 proper to Europe ; three common to Europe and Asia ; one common to 

 Europe and Africa; one common to Europe and North America ; 

 one common to Europe, Asia, and North America ; and one common 

 to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, North and South America. 21 



That the maxim, as the powers of flight so is the distri- 

 bution, is not correct, many instances could be given ; and in no 

 tribe have we a stronger evidence to the contrary than in the Ballidce, 

 seeing that they exist in the western hemisphere, so far north as 

 Hudson's Bay, and in the eastern, as far south as the Sandwich 

 islands, having thus a range of about 105° of latitude, and nearly 

 280° of longitude ; and it is well known that the powers of flight in this 



24 Ch. Luc. Bonaparte, in his Catalogue of American and European Birds, gives a 

 new name to the Osprey of America; upon what grounds we know not. Gould in his 

 work on the Birds of New Holland, now publishing, has described the Osprey of that 

 quarter as a new species, to do which he is not at all entitled, there being no characters 

 whatever presented to mark them as specifically distinct. In the Ed. Museum 

 there is one specimen from New Holland, agreeing in every character with specimens, 

 killed in Europe. The same remarks apply to the American species. 



