FALCONID^. 9 



induced to dissent from several modern writers in our opinions upon this family. 

 That the various forms of which it is composed, exhibit, as a whole, a circular 

 succession of affinities, has been sufficiently proved ; but the true series of the 

 secondary groups, among- themselves, has not yet been made out. The reason 

 is obvious : — the British school of naturalists, as before stated, want the means, 

 while those of the continent (possessing, in their superb museums, the greatest 

 advantages) have not the inclination to undertake the enquiry. Yet our in- 

 ability to state in what way the Falcons or Hawks form their own respective 

 circles, cannot militate against the belief, that such is their true distribution. 

 It remains, therefore, to be considered, whether there is presumptive evidence 

 to believe that the three remaining divisions, namely, the Buzzards, Kites, 

 and Eagles, form one circular group, independent of their affinity to the two 

 former. The true Buzzards, of which the Vulgaris and the Lagopus may pro- 

 bably be types, are slender, long-winged birds ; the bill is small, short, and 

 considerably curved : in this structure they agree with the true Falcons, yet 

 they are well known to be distinguished from them, by wanting the toothed-bill, 

 and by the shortness and graduated abbreviation of the exterior quill-feathers. 

 Now, if Nature had proceeded in a simple course, from the Buzzards to the 

 Falcons, we should have had birds uniting the distinctions of both, variously mo- 

 dified. Both these groups being composed, in their typical examples, of slender 

 long-winged birds, with short bills, any species exhibiting the reverse of such cha- 

 racters, and intervening between the two forms, would certainly appear anomalous, 

 on the supposition of a simple series of affinities being aimed at. Yet, that 

 such birds are to be found, even among the few that we are subsequently to 

 notice, is unquestionable. Let us, then, take the Buteo borealis, which, as being 

 more allied to the Falcons than to the Kites, may be considered an intervening 

 form between the Buteo vulgaris and Falco. We here see a large-sized, heavy 

 bird, with shortened wings, not reaching to more than half the length of the tail; 

 while the elongated bill, unlike either that of Buteo or Falco, obviously assimi- 

 lates to that lengthened form which belongs to the Eagles. Now, upon the sup- 

 position that a bird so constructed is intended to fill up the interval between 

 Buteo and Falco, and at the same time to unite the former with the Eagles, the 

 singularity of its structure is no longer surprising : but if we consider it with a 

 simple reference to the passage between Buteo and Falco, we are almost tempted 

 to suspect that, in this instance, a real saltus has been made. While upon this 

 subject, we may cite an acute observation made by Prince C. Buonaparte, that 

 " the Borealis is almost as much an Astur of the first section, as a Buteo ;" a 



