﻿BIRDS OF PREY. THE TYPICAL FALCONS. 297 



descriptions in books ; and others, from not being in 

 our own possession, cannot be re-examined, or laid 

 upon our study table, while this inquiry is going on. 

 We have found, in short, that notes taken in public 

 museums, rarely, if ever, completely answer the ultimate 

 purpose for which they are intended. Something of 

 importance, not known to be such at the time, is gene- 

 rally overlooked ; while other details, then thought of 

 importance, sometimes turn out of very secondary con- 

 sequence. Several reasons induce us to make these 

 observations on the present occasion. In the first place, 

 the reader will be informed what facts repose upon per- 

 sonal observation, and what are taken upon trust. He 

 will further see the importance of collecting, as far as 

 possible, under his own eye, the subjects upon which he 

 intends to write; and he will learn to appreciate the 

 value of those very few descriptive works which mi- 

 nutely describe the structure of every species, and all 

 its deviations from its acknowledged type. 



(244.) Commencing with the genus Falco, as the 

 most typical of the whole family, we observe in them 

 the highest development of that structure which is best 

 adapted for rapine. Their wings, although not so long 

 as in some of the kites and buzzards, are yet more 

 pointed, the second and third quill being the longest ; 

 and although the character is applicable only to the 

 typical species, it never is so far lost but that the stu- 

 dent can at once discriminate a falcon from a hawk. 

 The most prevalent distinction, however, of the group 

 lies in the bill, which is always short, and the tooth 

 near the tip invariably angulated. The subgenus 

 Falco, to which we are now more especially alluding, 

 has only a single tooth in the upper mandible, behind 

 which there is an incipient festoon or sinuated pro- 

 jection, analogous to that which is so much more de- 

 veloped in the next generic group (^.95. 6). These 

 birds present among themselves some very slight vari- 

 ations, not, however, of any material consequence. In 

 some, as in the small rufous-backed species, allied to 



