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PART III. 



ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND RELATIONS OF THE 

 DIFFERENT ORDERS, TRIBES, AND FAMILIES OF 

 BIRDS. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE RAPTORIAL ORDER, OR BIRDS OF PREY. 



(230.) The rapacious birds, like the feline qua- 

 drupeds which they represent, form a distinct and pri- 

 mary order in their own class. In comparison to the 

 Insessores, or perchers, their number is but few; for 

 had it been otherwise, their sanguinary habits would 

 have soon depopulated the feathered creation. For the 

 same wise and conservative principles they propagate 

 slowly. While the domestic fowl rears with facility a 

 brood of ten or fifteen little ones, and the prolific spar- 

 row, both feeding upon the seeds of the earth, lays from 

 eight to ten eggs, the eagle seldom hatches more than 

 two, and this but once a year. As if conscious that 

 they were the known and detested enemies both of man 

 and beast, they build only in wild and desert solitudes ; 

 shunning, and shunned by, their own class, except when 

 they leave their retreats to seek and devour them. 



(231.) Rapacious birds comprise some of the largest 

 of the feathered creation, and they are notoriously the 

 most muscular and powerful. The flight of the eagle 

 has been the theme of poets, and there are few of that 

 family which do not show great strength of wing. The 

 male is considerably smaller than the female; a dis- 

 proportion not found in other birds, and for which it 

 is difficult to account, seeing that both sexes hunt the 

 same description of game, and evince the same courage. 

 It is a mistake among compilers to say that " the fe- 

 males are handsomer" than the males, for the very con- 

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