NESTS OP RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 
175 
whatever circle they are placed, nearly all groups or 
forms which represent the Insessores, are the most per- 
fectly typical of that particular sort of nidification which 
is most general in their own circle. 
(1.51.) The nests of Raptorial birds are seldom met 
with : this arises both from the comparative rarity of 
the birds themselves, and from the sccresy or loftiness 
of their situations. Our information, tlierefore, upon 
the greater part of the species, even those which are 
natives of Europe, is very defective : the best modern 
work on European ornithology scarcely informs us of 
any thing more than that the majority build in lofty 
trees or inaccessible rocks or precipices, without even 
stating whether the nest is composed of a natural cavity, 
or fabricated by the bird. It cannot, indeed, be ex- 
pected that field ornithologists should risk life and limb 
in order to ascertain such points. We merely advert 
to the fact as explanatory of our defective information, 
and the impossibility of generalising our remarks to the 
extent that might be wished. Even when our system- 
atic writers allude to the nests of these birds, it is gene- 
rally from hearsay, or from the vague accounts of ill- 
informed travellers or other persons. Such accounts 
cannot, in consequence, be depended upon, particularly 
if they are at variance with the testimony of such men 
as Azara, Wilson, Hutchins*, Richardson, and Montague. 
Of the nidification, for instance, of the different genera 
of vultures, we know absolutely nothing further than the 
account of the Cathartes aura given by Wilson, who 
says that it makes no nest whatsoever, but deposits its 
eggs on the rotten wood of the excavated stumps, or 
the top part of the broken hollow of a tree. Eagles 
seem to be the most perfect builders of their order, 
fabricating strong and capacious nests from the materials 
used : these nests appear to be rude, but they are,^ m 
reality, not more so than those of the most delicate 1 as- 
* Both Bennant and Latham arc indebted for all their 
■Manners of the Northern American birds to the l>‘‘V‘''’',.?nh,,iocist See 
servatioiis of this little known, but truly cmincHt, ormtl g 
Northern Zoology» vol. ii. preface by Dr. Kichardsou. 
