AND HAWKS. 169 



their game, their preying is, in a state of nature, con- 

 fined to the air, the appropriate region of birds. 



The peregrine falcon is probably next to the jer ; 

 but the gradation in the beak is not very strongly 

 marked among the high-flyers ; for the smaller ones, 

 such as the merlin and the sparrow-hawk, have it 

 very beautifully formed, better adapted certainly for 

 dividing and tearing flesh than any instrument of 

 human contrivance. 



Through the low flighted hawks there is a gradual 

 departure from the model of the jer-falcon, till we 

 come to the beak of the kite, which combines some of 

 the characters of the falcons with some of those of 

 the owls. And the feeding of the kite is of the same 

 mixed character. It captures birds when it dares 

 and can ; but it does so chiefly on the ground, adds 

 mice and reptiles to its mess ; and although a bird 

 of fine wing, and one of the most airy hoverers of the 

 race, there is no dash or dignity about it. 



In the eagles we have a further modification of the 

 bill. It has no decided tooth in any of them, neither 

 is it so strongly formed in proportion to its size as in 

 the high-flying falcons, even in the most powerful of 

 the race ; and in the fishers, the outlines of the tomia 

 are nearly even. New characters present themselves 

 in this division of the order ; they do not contend with 

 their prey in the air and on the wing, and they feed 

 more upon mammalia than the hawks, though they also 

 make great havoc among the larger ground birds. We 

 shall, hov.-ever, be better able to understand those differ- 

 ences when we come to consider the feet and wings. 



The beaks of the vultures are much feebler than 

 those of any of the species already noticed. Instead 

 of the arched outhne, which, though it gets flattened 

 in the others from the falcon downwards, is nearly an 



