BIRDS OP PREY. HAWKS. 
303 
( 247 .) 
of wliich 
The genus Accipiter comprehends the hawks^ 
our common sparrowhawk (fig. 96.) offers 
a familiar type. In this, and in 
a considerable number of other 
species, from different parts of 
the world, the festoon or rounded 
tootli is placed, not near the tip, 
but in the middle of the cutting 
margin of the bill ; so that not 
only its form, but its situation, is 
essentially different from that of 
the last genus. The wings are 
not only short, but rounded ; they 
seldom reach beyond the middle of 
the tail ; the first quill is very short, 
and although the second and third are progressively 
longer, the full length is only attained by the fifth. 1 he 
feet, like those of the falcons, are long and slender : the 
tarsi are so smooth as to appear covered with only one 
scale : the relative proportion of the lateral toes is also 
more uniform ; the external one is considerably longer 
than that which is internal, and it has the smallest 
claw ; whereas the claws of the internal and hinder toes 
are remarkably large, and nearly of the same size : the 
callous pads on the soles are very prominent ; and the 
tail is either rounded or even. Such are the prominent 
distinctions of tb.e genus before us ; but as it contains, 
like that of Fa/co, many subordinate types, the student 
