BIRDS OP PREY. — FALCONS. 
291 
and we have elsewhere* stated our reasons for consider- 
ing that the three aberrant groups, namely, the eagles, 
the kites, and the buzzards, form a distinct circle of 
their own. We may, therefore, consider the circular 
succession of these three, or five, divisions as substan- 
tiated by the following details, and we may at once 
proceed to the analogical verification of the group. Our 
first test will be to compare it with the tribes of the 
Insessores, or perchers, because its analogies will come 
more home to the student than if he had to trace them 
through the medium of the orders of birds. 
Genus. 
pALca 
ACCIPITEtt. 
Buteo. 
Ctmxndis. 
Aquila. 
FAMILY FALCONIDJE. — Tkc Falcons. 
The most perfectly organised in their ■) 
respective circles. J 
The most conspicuously toothed} wings ? dextirostres. 
rounded, rather short i 
Wings very long } hunt upon the vring. Fissirostres. 
Feet remarkably short; wings long;^ 
the upper mandible considerably pro- S Tenuirostrei^. 
. jecting. J 
f Size large ; bodv heavy ; feet very thick 7 
I and strong} licad frcfquently crested. 3 
Rasores. 
So fully is the theory of variation exemplified by this 
tabular comparison, that the professed ornithologist re- 
quires no additional evidence that these analogies are 
founded in nature. A few observations, however, tend- 
ing to elucidate them to the student, may not be mis- 
placed. The noble falcons, like the conlrostral birds, 
are well known as the most perfectly or highly organised 
of any part of their family; and we should not be at 
all surprised to find, when their history becomes better 
known, that they are, like the coniroHres among birds, 
and the guadrumana among the quadrupeds, pre-emi- 
nently distinguished in their powers of grasping. In- 
deed, this fact may he safely assumed, since it has been 
well ascertained that the Peregrine and one or two other 
typical falcons, when darting into the middle of a flock 
of ducks or a covey of partridges, will strike down with 
its talons many other individuals besides that which it 
» Northern Zoology, vol. ii. pp. 9, 10. 
U 2 
