59B 



ON SOME SPECIES OF THE 



Those varieties which have been referred by 

 one naturalist to the Common Falcon, and by 

 another to the Peregrine Falcon, are the connect- 

 ing links between the immature dress of the one, 

 and the perfect plumage of the other, and a know- 

 ledge of this circumstance removes much of the 

 obscurity in which the history of the falcon tribe 

 has been enveloped. 



The alterations which take place in the plu- 

 mage of birds, . like other changes in the animal 

 economy, are not the result of chance, but are 

 regulated by certain physical laws. 



These, as applicable to the falcon tribe, though 

 more complicated, and notwithstanding many 

 seeming variations, are not less regular in their ef- 

 fects than they are in regard to other genera of 

 birds. 



The different individuals described by Brisson 

 ^nd other naturalists, are not to be considered as 

 accidental varieties, depending upon no fixed prin- 

 ciple ; on the contrary, many of them represent 

 the regular changes which take place in the plu- 



cannot be supposed to have originated in any variety of the 

 F. huteo. The Buzzard is the most shiggish, cowardly, and in- 

 active of all birds of prey, and the least fitted for the art of 

 falconry. The Common Falcon, generally so called, to what- 

 ever species it may be traced, is undoubtedly derived from a 

 long-winged or hunting hawk, and not from any of the short- 

 winged species. 



