1844.] 



JerdorCs Illustration of Ornithology. 



221 



tive artists, evidently however controlled and directed by the authors 

 knowledge of the habits, forms and attitudes of the different Birds, 

 The 12 figures in No. 1* are not confined to any particular class but 

 comprise Accipitrine and Passerine, climbing and wading individuals, 

 interesting alike to the naturalist, the sportsman or the simple admirer 

 of nature. The new facts developed regarding the Paradise -Fly 

 catcher and the notice of the habits of the large Hawk Eagle 

 [which Mr. Blyth considers to be identical with the Aquila Bonelli 

 of Europef] are valuable contributions to science, while the lovers 

 of the chase with whom India abounds, cannot but be gratified with 

 the successful delineation of their old friends, the painted rock- 

 grouse and the solitary snipe, the latter in its natural haunt by the 

 edge of a swamp at the foot of a shola or coppice on the Neil- 

 gherries. The peculiar character of the scenery of these moun- 

 tains is exquisitely preserved both in this plate and in that of 

 Ward's Thrush. One of the best figures appears to us to be 

 the Boyal Falcon No. 12 in which the bold and dignified repose 

 of the noble bird of prey is happily caught. We have no doubt 

 that the author is correct in considering this species to be the 

 Falcon originally described by Aldovrand, as seen by him at the 

 Court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany to whom a pair had been sent 

 from the East. The Shaheen has long been famed in oriental field 

 sports and is described in Persian and Arabic treatises on Falconry 

 of a much earlier date than that referred to.j: It is notorious that the 

 art of training the Falcon was introduced into Europe from the East 

 and it can hardly be doubted that the returning Crusaders carried with 

 them both the Shaheen and the Byhree the two most docile and easily 

 reclaimed of the long- winged Hawks, and consequently the most priz- 



* 1 Niscetus grandis [strenuus in the plate.'] 



2 Leucocirca albofrontata. 7 Muscipeta paradisea. 



3 Zanclostomus viridirostris. 8 Turdus TFardii. 



4 Accipiter besra. 9 Scolopax JVemoricola. 



5 Picas Hodgsonii. 10 Pterocles quadricinctus. 



6 Prinia cursitans. 11 Phcenicornis flammeus. 



12 Fako Shaheen. 



+ Calcutta Jour. Nat. His. No. xvi. Vol. IV. p. 535, 



t Ulysses Aldovrand a Noble of Bologna and Professor in the University of his na- 

 tive city was born 1525; died 1605. The Hawks were probably sent to Ferdinand <i# 

 Medici 



