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FALCONIDiE. 
The Falconidae are the typical, consequently 
the most numerous family of the Raptorial birds. 
They represent here the more noble Felidm 
among the Ferae, as the vultures did the more 
ignoble carcase devouring dogs, wolves and 
hyenas of the same family. Their prey is almost 
always seized by their own energies, either on 
the wing, or pounced on by surprise in cover, 
or on the ground ; it consists of nearly the whole 
animal kingdom, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, 
fishes, and the larger species of insects. One or 
two examples, however, do occur among the 
most aberrant groups in foreign countries, where 
carrion, or at least animals 'which the birds have 
not themselves destroyed, serve as food, and 
we have observed an occasional instance of it in 
the common harrier of Europe, (circus cyaneus,) 
feeding on the fish which remained dead about 
the stake nets during the reflux of the tide. 
Confinement immediately so far changes the 
nature of all,* that dead food is eagerly seized 
* Audubon, speaking of the Great-footed Hawk, (Pere- 
grine Falcon,) remarks, “ They occasionally feed on dead 
