50 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
These are the noble birds of prey; their aspect, entire form, and 
actions indicate the different manner of living they pursue, from 
that of the Vultures. Strength, temerity, and stratagem are the 
attributes of this great family of rapacious birds ; they are provided 
with offensive arms denied to the ignoble race who feed on carrion ; 
the means of flight, the power of seizing their prey, as well as the 
vision, are very different in each. In these, the size of the head is 
in proportion to the body, and wholly covered with feathers, as well 
as the neck, which is short and thick. Their vision is acute and 
extensive, their flight rapid and long sustained ; and they are able 
to soar to a prodigious height. They live either solitary or in pairs ; 
and their nourishment, by choice, consists almost always of living 
animals, which they seize and convey in their talons ; the different 
manner of seizing their prey, and the.courage they display in its pur- 
suit, distinguish them one from another. The larger species subsist 
on quadrupeds and birds ; others on fish ; some only attack reptiles ; 
but the greater number of the small species are content to live on 
insects, and principally devour beetles. The plumage, at different 
periods of age is extremely different ; the young are several years 
before they acquire the stable livery of the adult ; this fixed charac- 
ter only takes place in their 3d, 4th, or even, in some species, 
their 6th year. The young are always distinguished from the old 
by having more numerous and variable spots and lines ; when the 
colors of the plumage in old individuals are disposed in transverse 
lines and bands, the young of such species have the same marks dis- 
posed lengthwise. The females are usually a third larger than the 
other sex ; besides which disparity, they have often also a different- 
colored plumage. The moulting takes place only once in the year. 
— It appears scarcely possible, that amidst a genus only distinguish- 
ed for harsh and quailing cries, a musical species should occur ; yet 
according to Daudin the Falco musicus , of Caffraria, chants a song 
morning and evening, and sometimes like the nightingale even con- 
tinues his lay throughout the night. 
§ 1. FALCONS PROPERLY SO CALLED. 
In these the bill is short, and curved from the base ; the edges of 
the upper mandible provided with a tooth which closes into a 
corresponding notch in the lower ; the nostrils rounded, and hav- 
