FALCONIDiE. 
201 
and eaten, but we have always remarked that 
among the more noble, — the Peregrine Falcon, 
for instance, — the taste, if we may use the expres- 
sion, was more refined ; tainted food was always 
refused, and so also was some of the strongly 
scented mammalia ; polecats or weasels were never 
eaten, and even a cat was not esteemed savoury, 
whereas a hare or rabbit would have been at 
once devoured. It may be remarked here, that 
in these two corresponding families of quadrupeds 
and birds, members of each have been trained to 
hunt and kill game for the sport or use of man. 
In form and structure, these birds are very 
powerfully made ; intended for rapine, they 
possess corresponding organs of great muscular 
strength, both to pursue and to tear, and to hold 
their prey when secured. In the wings of those 
possessing the most strong and rapid flight, we 
have a lengthened and accuminated form, narrow 
feathers, but of firm consistency, and when dis- 
played or spread presenting an even surface of 
resistance to the air. The moving muscles are 
large and powerful, particularly the pectorals, 
which are furnished with an expanded insertion 
fish that have floated to the shores of the sandbars ; I 
saw several of them thus occupied while descending the 
Mississippi,” (vol. i. p. 87.) This is at variance with 
every thing I have observed regarding the habits of the 
British Peregrine ; but in confinement, I have known 
the young to have been fed upon trouts. 
