3^2 The Hijlory ^ANIMALS. 
the boughs, this, on the contrary, ufually takes it’s poft on the tops of a fhrub or 
furz-bufh. 
It builds in the midft of thickets, in the mod inner recedes of our thick woods: 
it’s neft is formed of mofs, wool, and fmall items of hoary herbs, and it lines it firif with 
the fofter branches of the common erica or heath, and over thefe with the leaves of 
foft and tender plants. It lays fix eggs, and the young ones, while in the neft, carry 
very little refemblance of the parents, except in the beak and legs: their feathers, 
which indeed are properly no more than the rudiments of future feathers, are green 
toward the bafe, and the whole birds have a dufky olive tinge. 
It feeds on beetles and other large infe&s, but not on thefe only; it .will feize on 
any bird that is not greatly larger than itfelf: the thruih feems it’s mod capital prey, 
but from this downward nothing efcapes it : there is a peculiar cruelty alfo that it is 
guilty of, which is the taking the young out of the nefts of other birds. Moft of 
the writers on birds have defcribed it. Ray, Willughby, and others call it Lanius ci- 
nereus major ; and we, in the North of England, the Wierangle, a name borrowed 
from the German one Werkangel or Warkangel. The Germans alfo, about the 
Hart’s-foreft, where it is very frequent, call it Neghen-doer, a word expreffing it’s 
great fiercenefs, that it will kill nine birds, before it begins to eat of one of them, 
but with us it is not fo terribly mifchievous. 
_ Gefner mentions what he calls a larger fpecies of this bird, and names it Lanius 
cinereus maximus * he fays, it is in all things like this, only that it is larger : probably, 
this was no more than the difference between male and female, or fome other as trivial 
error. 
Falco pedibus cceruleis, capite nigrefcente , dorfo 
ferrugineo. 
The blue-legged Falco , with a black head\ and 
a ferrugineous back. 
This is a very lingular and a very beautiful little bird, though a perfect hawk in 
all. it’s characters j it is not larger than a lark : the head is large, rounded, and not at 
all like thofe of the generality of thefe birds: the beak is large, in proportion to the 
fize of the bird; it is broad at the bafe, and very hooked at the point : the upper 
chap is much longer than the under; it’s hooked extremity turns over that, and it has 
near this part two pointed appendages or denticles, which are not received into cavi¬ 
ties, or hollows formed for that purpofe in the lower chap, but hang over it: the 
noftrils are round ; the infide of the mouth is yellow : the tongue is divided into many 
parts at the extremity, and the palate has a cavity to receive it, which is hairy on each 
fide, as well as the tip of the tongue : there are about the angles of the beak certain 
rigid briftles or hairs, which ferve as whifkers. 
The middle of the back, and the middle feries of the feathers which cover the 
wings, are of a deep dufky, ferrugineous colour: the head and the rump are black j 
from the angles of the beak there runs beyond the ears a black line on each fide, of 
a deeper colour, and more glofly than any other part j this is confiderably broad, and 
is terminated at the edge by a white line: the throat and the breaft are of a very pale, 
ferrugineous colour, almoft white; the lower part of the belly is abfolutely white. 
The long wing-feathers are eighteen in each ; the firft or moft exterior of thefe is 
very fihort and little j the third is longer than any of the others, and from this they 
gradually become fhorter and fhorter to the innermoft, but the diminution in length is 
very fmall in each : the whole wing is not very long j it fpreads to a confiderabie ex¬ 
tent, in proportion to the bulk of the bird, when opened 5 but, when clofed, it is not 
fo long as the tail: the larger feathers are brown; the fmaller, that are neareft the 
body, are of a reddifh-brown, and the others have their middle black. 
The 
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