34° Hifiory e/ ANIMALS, 
This a native of moft parts of Europe, but is not very frequent in England, though 
it builds with us. It forms it’s neft of twigs of trees, and lines it with wooloften it 
takes the deferred neft of fome other large bird, as the kite or common buzzard ■ it 
lays four eggs, which are large, of an elliptic figure, and fpotted irregularly with a 
dufky crimfon. It builds with us in woods, and fometimes on fingle trees on heaths. 
It is a very lingular bird in it’s manner of feeding ; for though fo large, and able to 
feize on almoft any thing that the others do, it feeds principally on reptiles. As the 
other birds of this kind are principally on the wing, this is frequently feen fearching 
it’s prey on the ground; it runs very fwiftly in the manner of our domeftic fowls, 
and feeds on worms, beetles, and caterpillars. It is frequently feen hunting out the 
nefts of wild bees and wafps, feeding on the creatures themfelves, and on their pro¬ 
duce : it ufually deftroys the combs of thefe infeds in great quantity at it’s breeding 
time, the nymphs of the bee and wafp being the principal food it provides it’s young. 
All the writers on birds have defcribed it. Willughby calls it Buteo apivorus, five vef- 
pivorus; and Ray, Buteo apivorus et vefpivorus. Some have called it Accipiter Palum- 
rius; but this is a name which confounds it with another of the birds of prey. 
Fcilco pedibus ceraque flavis , dorfo rufefcente , peElore macu 
lato , cauda rotundata. 
The yellow-legged Falco , with a brown back , a fpotted 
breaft , a?td a rounded tail . 
This is a very beautiful bird; it is of the fize of a pigeon : the head is final!, 
flatted on the crown, of a greyifh colour, and elegantly variegated with long and nar¬ 
row ftreaks of black, the middle part of every feather being of that colour: the beak 
is fhort, and broad at the bale, and very hooked, and fharp at the point : it is of a 
deep bluifh-black colour, and it’s upper mandible has on each fide a denticulation, and 
the lower, on each fide, a finus: the membrane covering the bafe of it is yellow, and 
fomewhat wrinkled ; in this the noftrils- are confpicuous, though they are not very 
large, the naked part about the eyes alfo is yellow. 
The throat is white; the back and the feathers which cover the wings are of a 
deep reddifti-brown, or ferrugineous colour, and every feather is ornamented with a 
fingle acute fpot near the extremity : the breaft, the belly, and the thighs, are of a 
paler, ferrugineous colour than the back, and they are variegated with longitudinal 
black fpots; thefe are narrow and linear on the breaft, but they are broader, and ap¬ 
proach to an oval figure on the belly, and on the thighs they are more rounded, though 
ftill oblong, and are very numerous; under the tail there is a fpace of a pale colour, 
without a fingle fpot of any kind; and the fpace between the lower part of the back 
is of a greyifh colour. 
The legs are long and robuft, and they are, in great part, naked and yellow. 
The long feathers of the wings are twenty-two in number, and of thefe the fecond 
is the largeft, and from this, to the end, all the others become gradually fhorter: they 
are all of them brown on the upper part, and of a hoary grey underneath ; they 
have each feven or eight white marks on their hinder part, the anterior part is not 
variegated. 
The tail-feathers are very long, but the lateral ones are fomewhat fhorter than the 
others; they are of a greyifh or hoary colour, and each of them has a broad, black 
fafcia toward the end ; and each has alfo, in the hinder part inward, feven or eight 
lines of black, excepting only the two intermediate ones, which have none of thefe 
fpots, but are fimply and entirely grey, except that they have the fame fafcia of black 
at the extremity with the reft. 
The feathers which cover the under part of the wings are white, and are varie¬ 
gated in an elegant manner, by a number of black fpots. 
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The 
