﻿BIRDS OF PREY. HAWKS. 



303 



' Harpagus 



Family Accipiter^ 

 FALCONIDiE 



Lopkotes 



^Cymindis 



AQUILA 



(247.) The genus Accipiter comprehends the hawks, 

 of which our common sparrowhawk (fig. 96.) offers 

 a familiar type. In this, and in 

 a considerable number of other 

 species, from different parts of 

 the world, the festoon or rounded 

 tooth is placed, not near the tip, 

 but in the middle of the cutting 

 margin of the bill; so that not 

 only its form, but its situation, is 

 essentially different from that of 

 the last genus. The wings are 

 not only short, but rounded ; they 

 seldom reach beyond the middle of 

 the tail ; the first quill is very short, 

 and although the second and third are progressively 

 longer, the full length is only attained by the fifth. The 

 feet, like those of the falcons, are long and slender : the 

 tarsi are so smooth as to appear covered with only one 

 scale : the relative proportion of the lateral toes is also 

 more uniform ; the external one is considerably longer 

 than that which is internal, and it has the smallest 

 claw ; whereas the claws of the internal and hinder toes 

 are remarkably large, and nearly of the same size : the 

 callous pads on the soles are very prominent ; and the 

 tail is either rounded or even. Such are the prominent 

 distinctions of the genus before us ; but as it contains, 

 like that of Falco, many subordinate types, the student 



