﻿NESTS OP RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



175 



whatever circle they are placed, nearly all groups or 

 forms which represent the Insessores, are the most per- 

 fectly typical of that particular sort of nidification which 

 is most general in their own circle. 



(15 J.) The nests of Raptorial birds are seldom met 

 with : this arises both from the comparative rarity of 

 the birds themselves, and from the secresy or loftiness 

 of their situations. Our information, therefore, upon 

 the greater part of the species, even those which are 

 natives of Europe, is very defective : the best modern 

 work on European ornithology scarcely informs us of 

 any thing more than that the majority build in lofty 

 trees or inaccessible rocks or precipices, without even 

 stating whether the nest is composed of a natural cavity, 

 or fabricated by the bird. It cannot, indeed, be ex- 

 pected that field ornithologists should risk life and limb 

 in order to ascertain such points. We merely advert 

 to the fact as explanatory of our defective information, 

 and the impossibility of generalising our remarks to the 

 extent that might be wished. Even when our system- 

 atic writers allude to the nests of these birds, it is gene- 

 rally from hearsay, or from the vague accounts of ill- 

 informed travellers or other persons. Such accounts 

 cannot, in consequence, be depended upon, particularly 

 if they are at variance with the testimony of such men 

 as Azara, Wilson, Hutchins*, Richardson, and Montague. 

 Of the nidification, for instance, of the different genera 

 of vultures, we know absolutely nothing further than the 

 account of the Cathartes aura given by Wilson, who 

 says that it makes no nest whatsoever, but deposits its 

 eggs on the rotten wood of the excavated stumps, or 

 the top part of the broken hollow of a tree. Eagles 

 seem to be the most perfect builders of their order, 

 fabricating strong and capacious nests from the materials 

 used : these nests appear to be rude, but they are, in 

 reality, not more so than those of the most delicate Pas- 



* Both Pennant and Latham are indebted for all their knowledge of the 

 manners of the Northern American birds to the patient and accurate ob- 

 servations of this little known, but trulv eminent, ornithologist. See 

 Northern Zoology, vol. ii. preface by Dr. Richardson. 



