44 FALCON. 



This genus of birds is so well known, that scarcely any person 

 in possession of one can be at a loss where to place it. The only 

 mistake likely to happen, is the confounding it with the first genus, 

 for the reasons therein mentioned. The chief chamcteristics of the 

 Falcon, independent of a certain degree of nakedness about the head 

 and neck, seen in the Vulture, are the bill and claws, both of them 

 being very hooked and sharp. The luxury of the Falcon, for the 

 most part, is to kill its own prey, and to eat it while fresh ; and both 

 this and the Vulture often take in as much food as will last for many 

 days. The food of birds of this genus is not always flesh; many of the 

 Falcons will eat fi-sh, and some are content with snakes and reptiles, 

 as will be noticed hereafter. The circumstance of birds of the Falcon 

 Genus, casting up at intervals, the indigestible part of their food, 

 such as bones, feathers, hair, wool, &c. has been mentioned by all 

 writers on falconry; and falconers are so convinced of this discharge 

 being salutary and necessary, that when they feed their Hawks with 

 flesh, they intennix pellets of wool, or cotton. Few birds vary more 

 in the plumage according to age, which has been the occasion of 

 more species being enumerated than really exist. It is observed, that 

 every climate is furnished with them, not being confined, Ike the 

 Vulture, to the warmer regions. It is not known that the Falcon 

 tiibe ever unites into companies, and, except in the breeding season, 

 seldom two are seen together, at least there are not many instances 

 to the contrary. 



We have thought right to separate the species of this genus 

 into divisions, according to the different countries they inhabit, at 

 least as far as our knowledge of them has enabled us. We have 

 likewise, for the most part, followed the names given by former 

 describers, such as Eagle, Falcon, Hawk, Kite, Buzzard, &c. by 

 this means disturbing, as little as possible, the arrangement of 

 older authors. 



