L I B RA FLY OF THE U N IVERSITY Of ILLI NOIS 598.2942 Y23h 1671 v, 1 Biology S.B.liAURIATeo.1 WW BRITISH BIRDS. VOL. I. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/historyofbritish01bewi HISTORY BRITISH BIRDS. WILLIAM YARRELL, V.P.L.S, F.Z.S. FOURTH EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES. ILLUSTRATED BY 564 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. VOLUME L, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S., PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, F.L.S., F.Z.S. , ETC. LONDON : JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXL— MDCCCLXXIV. LONDON : 1'RINTKP BY WOOBFALL AND KINDER, MTLFORD LANE. STRAND, W.C. / $7/ tL^tr< . 23 538 548 552 558 564 569 575 581 586 592 598 Ar.AUDID.E. Otocorys alpestri „ 1 la uda arvensis ., arborea. ., cristata. Shore-Lark . Skylark Woodlark Crested Lark . ( alandrella brachydactyla. Short-toed Lark Melanocorypha sibirica. White-winged Lark 604 614 625 632 637 642 ERRATA TO VOL. I. PAGE LINE 93, 33, for p. 51 read p. 54. 118, 23, transpose transverse and longitudinal. 122, 25, for p. 237 read p. 437. 156, 35, for by 1"09 by "98 read by from 1 '09 to -98. 158, 3 of note, for p. 677 read p. 477. 214, 9, for differ read differs. 229, 1 of note, for 1866 read 1766. 233, 1 of note, after p. 160 insert (1766). 317, 24, for Galicia read Galizia. 352, 1 of note, for Syrian specimens read The examples which breed in Syria. 361, 5 of note, for WiXah read i-riXal;. 364, 3 of note, the reference to Naumann's work should he Kachtr. iv. p. 199 (1811). 454, 6, for Mr. Gould's read Bonaparte's. 493, 4, 5, for Taekzanowski read Taezanowski. 509, 9, dele A. vinacea and. ,, 11, for may be read is. 514, Recent discoveries seem to shew that the genus Pannrus is most nearly allied to Paradoxornis. BRITISH BIRDS. ACCIPITRES. VULTURIDJE. Gyps fulvus (J. F. G-melin*). THE GKIFFON-VULTUEE. Vultur fulvus. Gyps, Savignyf.— Beak strong, thick, and deep, the sides rather swollen, maxilla rising immediately in front of the cere, forming a culmen curving to the tip, where it is somewhat abruptly hooked. Mandible straight and rounded, * Vultur fulvus, J. F. Gmelin, Pyst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1788). f Systems des Oiseaux de l'Egypte et de la Syrie, p. 8 (1810). VOL. I. B 2 VULTUMD.-E. becoming narrower towards the point. Nostrils naked and diagonal. Tongue fringed with spines. Head slender and covered with short down, as is most part of the neck ; above the shoulders a ruff of elongated feathers. Feet strong, elaws slightly hooked; middle toe rather longer than tarsus, and united at base to outer toe by a membrane. Wings long; first quill-feather short, the fourth the longest. Tail of twelve or fourteen feathers. [ AM indebted to the kindness of Admiral Bowles for the first notice of the capture in Ireland of the Griffon-Vulture. In the autumn of 1 the Admiral was visiting Lord Shannon, at Castle Martyr, and saw there this Vulture, which had been caught by a youth on the rocks near Cork Harbour, in the spring of that year. The bird was full grown ; the plumage perfect, without any of the appearances consequent upon confinement; there was no reason to suspect that the bird had escaped from any ship ; it was very wild and savage, and was in perfect health. Not long afterwards Mr. Thompson observes in the 'Annals of Natural History' (\v. }). 308), his Lordship "offered the bird to Dr. Ball for the collection in the Garden of the Zoological Society, Dublin; but before arrangements were completed for its transmission it died. The specimen was, by the directions of Lord Shannon, carefully preserved and stuffed, and placed at the disposal of Dr. Ball, who lias added it to the collec- tion in Trinity College, Dublin. It is in adult plumage." This species of Vulture, of large size and proportionate strength, possesses also great sustaining powers of flight, and has, as might be expected, a very extended geographical range. In Europe it inhabits Spain, and though visiting the South of France in considerable numbers, it does not appear to breed to the northward of the Pyrenees. It also occurs in Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, and the Crimea. It has been met with in Germany, and it is found in Sardinia and Crete. In North Africa its range extends from Morocco in the west to Egypt in the east, and thence south- wards, according to some authorities, even to the ('ape of Good Hope, not occurring, however, on the western side of the continent. In Asia it frequents Asia, Minor, Syria, Palestine, Persia, and Northern India. It must he observed, however, that according to the views of some ornithologists, GRIFFON-VULTURE. 3 several races, if not distinct species, have been confounded under the name of Gyps or Vultur f ulcus, and in particular that which inhabits Spain and the north-western portion of Africa, has received the name of Gyps occidentalis. Mr. Blyth, however, has remarked that a specimen which he received under this designation from Algeria, was simply a female of Gyps fulvus, for in the Vulturidce, unlike the other birds of prey, that sex is always the smaller. Of late years the habits of this Vulture have been closely observed by many of those ornithologists whom a spirit of inquiry, possibly engendered by the earlier editions of this work, has prompted to wander far from home in the pursuit of the study to which they are devoted, and there are probably few exotic birds about which more has been written than the Griffon-Yulture. Its manners have been examined by these adventurous naturalists in very many of its haunts, and it is difficult to select from their accounts, chiefly published in ' The Ibis,' the passages most worthy of citation, where all are of interest. Since the presumption, however, is that the bird taken in Ireland, as above mentioned, was of the western race, it may lie advisable to restrict the extracts to remarks which can only refer to that form. In Algeria, Canon Tristram mentions that on the occasion of a Camel being slaughtered in the Desert, which the Griffon-Yulture does not habitually frequent, it was not till the next morning that a bird scented, or rather descried, the prey. " That the Vulture uses," he continues (Ibis, 1859, p. 280), " the organ of sight rather than that of smell, seems to be certain from the immense height at which he soars and gyrates in the air. In this instance one solitary bird descended, and half an hour afterwards was joined by a second. A short time elapsed, and the Nubian Vulture (Otogyps nubicus) appeared, self-invited, at the feast; and before the bones were left to the Hyajna, no less than nine Griffons and two Nubians had broken their fast May we not conjecture that the process is as follows ? — The Griffon who first descries his quarry, descends from his elevation at once. Another, sweeping the horizon at a still 4 yultukiiu:. greater distance, observes his neighbour's movements, and follows his course. A third, still further removed, follows the flight of the second; he is traced by another ; and so a perpetual succession is kept up as long as a morsel of food remains over which to consort." Mr. Osbert Salvin, also writing of this species in a part of the Eastern Atlas, where it was very abundant, occupying with its nests every available ledge in some extensive ranges <>f rucks (Ibis, L859, p. 179), says: — "The eggs appear to ho laid in the month of February, as most of the nests con- tained young in the beginning of April. During the time of incubation, one of the parent lards sits constantly, and if frightened off. returns immediately. The nest is composed almost entirely of sticks, which are used in greater or less abundance, as the situation requires. The eggs obtained from wild birds generally show indications of natural colouring, in addit ion to the blood and dirt with which they are usually stained. Thi> colouring is dispersed in faint spots of a reddish line, sometimes all over the egg, hut generally at the larger or smaller end." He adds, that the young "on emerging from the egg is covered with white down; the sides are dark."' In Spain, Lord Lilford (Ibis, 1865, p. 168) mentions his having seen on the hanks of the Guadalquivir, below Seville, a party of at least forty of these birds regaling upon a dead horse. " I have since, - ' he adds, "met with this Vulture in all parts of Spain which I have visited, in great abundance, particularly in April, 1864, in the Sierra de la Palmitera, near Marbella, where we were encamped for two days in pursuit of Ibex." More lately. Mr. Howard Saunders, writ- ing of the birds of Southern Spain, states (Ibis, 1871, p. 50), "This is the common Vulture of the country, breeding in small colonies in ever}' mountain-range. It lays early in March, as I found some young birds in the first week of April. The eggs (usually one. hut occasionally two) have seldom any genuine marking; hut 1 know of a colony of six where the eggs are always somewhat spotted and streaked." Lack of space lenders it impossible here to quote the GKIFFON-VULTURE. 5 accounts given of this bird (if, indeed, it be the same species) in countries further to the east. They have been given in much detail by Mr. Allan Hume, Mr. Hudleston, Mr. Charles Farman, and Messrs. H. J. Elwes and T. E. Buckley. Canon Tristram has described (Ibis, 1865, p. 264) two extensive colonies in the cliffs near Mount Carmel, and, in his ' Natural History of the Bible,' he states that there can be no doubt of the identity of the Hebrew word Ncslicr — invariably rendered "Eagle" by the translators of our accepted version — with the Arabic Nissr, the modern name of this species of Vulture. An egg of Gypsfidvus, taken by Mr. Philip Lutley Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, at Kef M'Satka, in the Eastern Atlas, in March, 1859, and given by him to the Editor, measures 3-64 by 2-82 in.; it is of a pure white, with a few small markings of pale red; but more highly-coloured specimens are in other collections. The following description was taken from a fine living specimen in the garden of the Zoological Society. The beak, from the curved point to the cere, is of a yellowish-white horn-colour ; the cere itself bluish-black ; the irides reddish- oraAge; the head, neck, and circular ruff of dull whitish down ; the lanceolate feathers below the circular ruff, the plumage of the upper surface of the body and the wing-coverts, light yellowish-brown ; the shaft of each feather of light wood brown; the primaries and tail-feathers dark clove brown ; the lower part of the neck in front, and the upper part of the breast dull white, mixed with light brown ; under surface of the body reddish yellow-brown ; the smaller under wing-coverts light brown ; the large under wing-coverts almost white ; the legs and toes lead colour ; the claws black ; the anterior portion of each toe covered with six large scales, the remaining portion and the legs reticulated. A specimen, sent to the Zoological Society by Sir Thomas Eeade, from Tunis, measured, from the point of the beak to the end of the tail, three feet eight inches ; from the anterior bend of the wing to the end of the longest quill, twenty- seven inches ; the middle toe and claw five inches. YULTURID.E. AC0IP1TRES. VCLTCRIDJ-:. Neophron percnopterus (Linnseus*). THE EGYPTIAN VULTUEE. Neopli ron percnopterus. Neophron, Sariijiiyf.— 'Beak straight, slender, elongated, rounded above, encircled at the base with a naked cere, which extends more than half the length of the beak: upper mandible with straight edges, hooked at the tip; under mandible blunt, and shorter than the upper. Nostrils, near the middle of the beak, elongated, longitudinal. Head and neck partly bare of feathers. Wings long, rather pointed; the third quill-feather the longest. Legs of moderate strength and length; tarsi reticulated: feet with four toes, three before, one behind; anterior toes united at the base. Tail-feathers fourteen. Two examples of this Vulture were seen on the shores of tlic Bristol Channel, and one of them, now in the possession of the Eev. Jehu Matthew, of Kilve, in Somersetshire, was shot near that place in October, 1825. "When first dis- covered, it was feeding upon the carcass of a dead sheep, and Vultur percnopterus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 123 (17(36). f Systeme des < >iseaux de l'Egypte et de la Syrie, p. 8 (1810). EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 7 had so gorged itself with the carrion as to he unable or unwill- ing to fly to any great distance at a time, and was therefore approached without much difficulty and shot. Another bird, similar to it in appearance, was seen at the same time upon wing at no great distance, which remained in the neighbour- hood a few days, but could never be approached within range, and which was supposed to be the mate of the one killed." On the 28th of September, 1868, as recorded by Dr. Bree in 'The Zoologist' for that year (p. 1456), another Egyptian Vulture was shot at Peldon, in Essex, attracted by the blood of some slaughtered geese. This bird, as seems to have been the case also with the Somersetshire specimen, is said to have been in immature plumage, and is minutely descril >ed by Dr. Bree. The Egyptian Vulture is said to be common in the interior of South Africa, but, according to Mr. Ayres, it is rare in Natal, and Mr. Layard states that it is decidedly a scarce species near Capetown. It is there called by various names which signify " White Crow," the name referring to the adult bird. Le Vaillant states that this species inhabits the whole of Southern Africa, and is infinitely more common within the tropics than elsewhere. The Egyptian Vulture does not live in flocks, like other Vultures ; although, when attracted by a carcase, eio-ht or ten may be seen assembled. At other times it is rare to see more than two together. The male and female seldom separate. In the districts which this species inhabits, every group of natives has a pair of these Vultures attached to it. The birds roost on the trees in the vicinity, or on the fences which bound the inclosures formed for their cattle. They are to a certain degree domiciled and harmless. The people do them no injury: on the contrary, they are rather o-lad to see and encourage them, because thev clear the pre- mises of all the offal and filth they can find. In default of other food, they eat frogs, lizards, and snakes. Like the preceding species, the Egyptian Vulture is un- known along the western coast of Africa ; but, unlike it, it inhabits the Cape Verde Islands and the Canaries, and has 8 YULTUIMIU'. occurred in Madeira. Tangier seems to be its most westerly limit on the African mainland, ami thence the first eggs of this species seen in England were obtained from M. Favier in 1845, by the late Mr. John Wolley, as has elsewhere been mentioned (Ootheca YVolleyana, p. 1). They arc subject to great varia- tion in size and colour, being blotched and mottled with dark or light red, sometimes so closely that the white ground is not visible. They measure from 2-68 to 2-32 by 2-2 to 1-7- in. In Algeria the species is abundant, and, according to Mr. Salvin, "wherever a cliff exists in the mountains that surround the table-lands of the Eastern Atlas, sure enough it will be occupied by a pair." It visits also all the oases of the Desert in summer, and follows the nomad camps for offal. The nest is said by Canon Tristram to be placed on a rocky ledge, and to consist of a foundation of branches, on which are heaped "rags, patches, old slippers, and whole basketsful of camels' hair and wool." From the vicinity of Tangier this species passes over to Portugal, where the Eev. A. 0. Smith Jell in with it on many occasions; it is common in summer in Spain, especially in Andalucia, where it fearlessly follows the plough, according to Lord Lilford. It inhabits and breeds on the Pyrenees and in Lower Provence. It has occurred in Germany, and Buffon received an adult specimen from Norway ; it is not, therefore, at all surprising that this lard should have been taken in England. The Norwegian specimen, placed by him in the National Cabinet, was compared by Le Vaillant with his ( !ape specimens, and he was convinced they were of the same specie--. Malta, Sicily, Corfu, and Crete, with other islands of the Mediterranean Sea, are, as might he expected, visited by this Vulture. Bruce, and many travellers after him, says it is fi'ci|iicut in Egypt and about Cairo, where it is called by the Europeans " Pharaoh's Hen." In Arabic it is called llachnmh. This name, with its Hebrew equivalent, Racham, rendered in the English Bible " Gier-eagle," is supposed to be derived from Rechcm, which signifies love or attachment: probably, says ( 'anon Tristram, from the male and female never parting EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 9 company. Bruce adds, that this bird builds its nest in the most deserted parts of the country, and lays but two eggs. The parent birds attend their young with great care, and feed them for the first four months. It is considered a breach of order to kill any one of these birds in Cairo. They are efficient scavengers. In Eastern Africa it has been observed by nearly all recent travellers. From Turkey, where it breeds as far north as Bulgaria, this species ranges over the Crimea, Asia Minor, and Pales- tine ; but its eastern limits are somewhat doubtful, since of late it has been declared that the well-known Indian bird generally identified with Neophron percnopterus, is a distinct species, N. ginginianus, and usually recognizable by its light- coloured beak. On the other hand, it is certain that some Indian Neophrons have dark beaks, so that the question still remains in obscurity. In the adult bird, the whole length from the point of the VOL I Ill VULTURID.K. beak fco the end of the tail is from twenty-six to twenty-nine inches. The beak is black; the cere yellow; the Lrides rod; the naked skin of the checks and front of the neck yellowish flesh-colonr; the feathers of the occiput and back of the neck slightly elongated: all the plumage white except the primary and secondary wing-feathers, the first of which are wholly black; the second have the proximal half black, — which colour, extending beyond the ends of the great wing- coverts, forms by its exposure a dark hand across 1 he middle of the wing; the remaining portion of the secondaries white ; the tail is graduated, the feathers of tin 1 , middle being the longest; the legs and toes pale flesh-colour; the claws black. The young bird has the base of the hill yellow ; the point black; irides reddish-brown; the naked skin of the cheeks and front of the neck livid grey; the general colour of the plumage dark brown, with a few light-coloured feathers, and the edges of others indicating the approach to maturity; great Cjuill-feathers black; legs and toes greyish-brown; claws black. The woodcut at the head of this article represents an adult, and that on the preceding page an immature bird of this species. The subjoined figure shows the sternal apparatus, the posterior portion of which is subject to some variation, as well in outline as in the presence or absence of the foramen by which it is pierced. The specimen from which this figure is drawn possesses a foramen on the right side but none on the left. ACCIPIT11ES. GOLDEN EAGLE. 11 FALCON ID AL Aquila cheysaetus (Linnaeus*). THE GOLDEN EAGLE. Aquila chrysaetos. Aquila, Brisson f. — Beak strong, of moderate length, curved from the cere, pointed, the cutting edges nearly straight. Nostrils oval, lateral, directed ob- liquely downward and backward; or circular. Wings large and long, the fourth quill-feather the longest. Legs strong; tarsi feathered to the junction of the toes. Feet strong ; the last phalanx of each toe covered by three large scales ; claws strong, hooked. * Falco chrysaetos, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12. i. p. 125 (1766). f Ornithologie, i. p. 420 (1760). L2 FALCON II ).K The Golden Eagle, though occasionally seen and some- times obtained in the southern part of Great Britain, is far more commonly found in Scotland. In the time of Willughby, who died in L672, it was reported to breed annually upon the high rocks of Snowdon. The same writer describes a nest found in Derbyshire in 1668. Bewick quotes from Wallis the remark, that this species formerly had its eyry on the highest part of Cheviot, and Sir William Jardine speaks of the precipices of Westmoreland and Cum- berland having once boasted a similar distinction. " Upon the wild ranges of the Scottish Border," he, writing in 1838, continues, "one or two pairs used to brood, but their nest has not been known for twenty years, though a straggler in winter sometimes is yet seen amidst their defiles ; " and Mr. Robert Gray, whose now work on the 'Birds of the West of Scotland' contains a long and interesting account of the Golden Eagle, says, that though looked upon throughout the country generally as a rarity, it is, from its habit of wandering in the autumn, frequently soon in the Lowlands. Indeed, the Rev. T. 1>. Bell informed Mr. A. G. More, only a few years since, that it still bred in East Galloway; but it is not till one enters the Highlands that one can confidently expect to see this species. Even there the number of birds, though yet considerable, is far less than by all accounts it was some years ago, and it is probably still diminishing, notwithstanding the protection afforded to them on some of the larger doer-forests. In most of the western and northern counties of Scotland, it is believed that a few nests are still tenanted by the Golden Eagle, as is also the case in the Hebrides, where, according to Mr. Gray, in the work before-mentioned, the birds "are smaller and darker in colour than those bred on the main- land." In the Orkneys it used also to breed, but, according to the best authorities, not in the Shetlands. The habits of this species, as observed by the late Mr. John Wolley, who was very familiar with it, are recounted in much detail, from his notes, in the 'Ootheca Wolleyana,' and representations of two eyries in Argyllshire are there given, from drawings made on the spot by Mr. Wolf. With a few exceptions GOLDEN EAGLE. 13 it takes up its quarters in some mountainous district, but the locality chosen is often remarkably accessible, and occa- sionally even on the ground. The nest usually consists of a platform of sticks, upon which is laid freshly-gathered heather, and sometimes large sprigs of fir-boughs. The lining is composed of fern, grass, moss, or any convenient material, but principally, and almost invariably, of tufts of Luzula sylvatica. The nest is repaired every year, so that an old structure is frequently of very large size, and while it appears loose, is yet so firm as scarcely to yield to the weight of a man. Instances are known, however, in Scotland, of the nest being placed in a tree. One of these has been examined by that excellent observer, Mr. A. E. Knox, who kindly showed some drawings of it to the Editor. Another has been described in ' The Ibis,' by Captain Powlett-Orde, and this contained four eggs — an unusual number for this bird to lay. The Golden Eagle breeds early in the year, often with the country under deep snow. The hen sits very close, but when disturbed flies off in alarm, and seldom reappears until her enemies have retired. The eggs are generally two in number, but three are not unfrequently found. They are laid at intervals of a few days, and are hatched in the same order. In size and shape they do not vary so much as do those of some other birds, but they are subject to great dif- ference in colour, ranging in this respect from a pure, spotless white to the richly-dyed carnations of a pair figured by Mr. Hewitson, in the third edition of his ' Illustrations,' well- marked examples being rather the rule than the exception. The colour of the mottling is commonly some shade of red, but eggs are not unfrequently found where it is of a purplish- brown, while spots of delicate lilac are seen underlying the darker blotches and streaks. They measure from 3-23 to 2-72 by 2-55 to 2-11 in. The eggs are hatched in Scotland about the end of April,, and the young are at first covered with snow-white down, which gives place to the dark-coloured nestling plumage. The bird described from the Derbyshire nest by Willughby 14 FA I.i 'ON I U.K. is said to have been "asblack as a Hobby, of the shape of a Goshawk, of almost the weight of a Goose, rough-footed, ' .K. refraining, in the interest of t ho birds, which are for various reasons much persecuted, from mentioning the precise locali- ties occupied. In Ireland, as appears from Thompson's work, there were a good many spots mi which the Sea-Eagle there maintained its position ; but it is much to he feared, from the unrelenting destruction of the species which has been carried on fur some years past, that a very different story wmild now have to lie told by any person as well- informed upon the subject as was that writer. The White-tailed Eagle is not found in any part of America, its place there being taken by the well-known White-headed Eagle {Haliceetus leucocephalus)* but it is very common in Greenland, remaining throughout the year, according to Professor Eeinhardt, in the Southern districts, though migrating from the Northern parts in winter. It also inhabits Iceland, where it is resident, but, owing to the price set upon its head, is not so common as formerly. In the Fsero Isles, according to Herr H. 0. Muller, it still occurs, but no longer breeds. It is spread over the continent of Europe, very generally in the neighbourhood of water, from the extreme north of Norway to Spain, Sicily and Greece, but becomes rarer towards the South, though it breeds in Albania, as recorded by Lord Lilford. In Algeria it only occurs accidentally, but it resides in Lower Egypt, accord- ing to Dr. von Heuglin, who describes a nest he saw in the thick reed-beds of Lake Menzaleh. Northward and east- ward of the European localities mentioned, the White-tailed Eagle is abundant in some suitable places and ranges across the Russian dominions to Kamtchatka, where, however, Kittlitz states that it is not common. It occurs in the Aleu- tian Islands and in Japan, as well as on the adjacent coast of Manchuria, whence young birds, taken from a nest in Hornet Bay, were sent to Mr. Gurney. In China, Mr. Swin- hoe believes that it visits Amoy, and in India, two or three immature examples have been lately recognized by Mr. Jerdon; but its southern limits in the rest of Asia do not ■ This has been thought to occur in Europe, and even in Ireland (Zoologist, 1867, ]). 562 . but on no good evidence. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 29 seem to have been defined. In the extreme north-east of that continent, and in the Aleutian Islands, Hcdiceetus albidUa is partly replaced by H. pelagicus, the largest Eagle known, which is distinguishable at a glance by its white thighs and upper wing-coverts. This species, rare in collections, is said to occur also in Japan, and on the American side of Behring's Strait. The eggs of the Sea-Eagle are, when fresh-laid, of a pure white, and measure from 3-14 to 2-7 by 2-4 to 2-19 in. The young are at first covered with white down. Instances are on record of occupied nests being placed very close together, even in the British Islands, and in (Eland Messrs. Wolley and Hudleston found five within a circuit of two miles. The whole length of an adult male is about twenty-eight inches ; the females are five or six inches longer : the beak and cere are yellow, the irides straw-yellow ; the head and neck brownish-ash (in very old birds extremely light), the shaft of each feather the darkest part ; body and wings dark brown, intermixed with a few feathers of a lighter colour ; primaries nearly black ; tail entirely white, and slightly rounded in form, the middle feathers being the longest ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. In young birds the beak is black, the cere yellowish-brown, the irides brown; the plumage more uniform in colour, and darker ; the tail-feathers dark brown. In this state it has been called by many authors Falco ossifragus (bone-breaker) ; but the term " Ossifrage," as used in the Old Testament, refers, according to Canon Tristram, to the Bearded Vulture or Lammergeier {Gi/pactus barbed us). The representation of the White-tailed Eagle here given was taken from a specimen in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, which formerly possessed a very remarkable variety of this species taken in Ireland, and now in the Norwich Museum. This has the whole of its plumage of an uniform bluish-grey colour, and has been figured in Meyer's ' British Birds.' Mr. St. John also mentions an example of " a fine silvery white," and Mr. Eobert Gray a pure white variety in the Museum at Dunrobin. 30 ACCIP1TRES. I'ALcoxin.i-: FALCOXIIKE. Pandion hall^eetus (Linnaeus*). THE OSPEEY, OE FIST [IXC HAWK. I'll nil ion lull in i I us. Pandion, Savigny.f.— Beak short, strong, rounded, and broad; cutting edge nearly straight. Nostrils oblong-oval, oblique. Wings long; second and third quill-feathers longest. Legs strong and muscular: tarsi short, covered with reticulated scales. Toes free, nearly equal; outer toe reversible; all armed with strong, curved, and sharp claws; under surface of the toes rough, and covered with small pointed scales. Feathers wanting the accessory plumule. This bird, from its habit of feeding almost exclusively on fish, must be looked for near the sea-shore, or about rivers and large lakes which may be expected to afford a plentiful supply of tin' particular food it; is known most; to delight in. The manner in which the Osprey seeks and obtains its prey • Falco huliietus, Linnaeus, Sysr. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. I'-".' 1766). f Systeme des Oiseaux de l'Egypte et de la Syrie, p. 9 (1810). OSPKEY. 31 has been admirably described by ornithologists in America, where the bird is sufficiently numerous to afford excellent opportunities of observing its actions. On one island near the eastern extremity of Long Island, New York, three hundred nests were counted. The old birds were rearing their young close together, living as peaceably as so many Books, and were equally harmless towards other birds. " When looking out for its prey," says Sir John Bichardson, "it sails with great ease and elegance, in undulating and curved lines, at a considerable altitude above the water, from whence it precipitates itself upon its quarry and bears it off in its claws ; or it not unfrequently, on the fish moving to too great a depth, stops suddenly in its descent, and hovers for a few seconds in the air, like a Kite or a Kestrel, sus- pending itself in the same spot by a quick flapping of its wings; it then makes a second and, in general, unerring dart upon its prey, or regains the former altitude by an elegant spiral flight. It seizes the fish with its claws, sometimes scarcely appearing to dip its feet in the water, and at other times plunging entirely under the surface with force suffi- cient to throw up a considerable spray. It emerges again, however, so speedily, as to render it evident that it does not attack fish swimming at any great depth." Though this last remark is no doubt true, it may be observed that an instance came to Mr. Wolley's knowledge of an Osprey being caught in a fishing-net and drowned. Mr. Lloyd has recorded the same fate happening to one which had struck so large a fish that the bird was pulled under water ; and Mr. Knox men- tions a case in which the bird, having landed its prey, was unable to extricate its talons therefrom, and so fell a victim to' the crook of a shepherd who had witnessed the capture. The versatility of the outer toe of the Osprey, the strength, curvature, and sharpness of its claws, and the roughness of the soles of its feet, are peculiarities of structure adapted to the better securing its slippery prey ; and the shortness of its thigh-feathers, unusual in the Falcon tribe, is also evi- dently connected with its fishing habits. A bird in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, when a fish 62 l.vu'oNiiu:. was given to ii. was observed to seize it across the body, placing the inner and outer toes at righl angles with the middle and hind toes, and digging in the (daws, held the lisli mosl firmly by four opposite points; nut relaxing iis hold or altering the position of the toes, but picking out the portions of flesh from between them with great dexterity. Tin' Osprey makes a large nest, sometimes on high trees, at others en rocky islets, or about eld ruins in lakes. When thus placed, ii is usually in the form of a truncated cone ; the sticks composing it project very little beyond the sides, and are built up with turf and ether compact materials; the summit is of mess, very tlat and even, and the cavity occu- pies a comparatively small part of it. The eggs, usually three in number, are subject to great and beautiful variety in colour. Generally they are irregularly and boldly blotched, and spotted with rich reddish-brown, on a white or yellowish- white ground, but in many examples a secondary tint of violet or pale yellowish-red occurs, while occasionally the specimen is almost entirely suffused with a bright orange-red or purple. They vary in size also considerably, measuring from 2-68 to 2-17 by 1-94 to 1-64 inches, and one sent from Sweden by the late Mr. Wheelwright measures only 1-G.K. FA LCONIDJS. Falco canpicans, J. F. Gmelin*. THE GKEENLAND FALCON. Falco gyrfalco (in part)*]". Falco, Linmeus\.— Beak short, curved from its base; on each cutting edge of the upper mandible a strong projecting tooth. Legs robust; tarsi short; toes long, strong, armed with curved and sharp claws. Wings long and pointed ; the first and third quill-feathers of equal length, the second quill-feather the longest. Xo question in ornithology perhaps has been so much dis- • Syst. Nat. i. p. 275(1788). f Not Falco gyrfalco, Linnaeus. j Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 124 (1766). GREENLAND FALCON. 37 cussed as that which relates to the large Falcons inhabiting the northern parts of the globe. By the majority of naturalists they have been regarded as forming a single species, but of late years there has been a growing tendency to recognize first two and then three distinct species or races — according as the idea of what constitutes a species or a race is enter- tained by the individual writer. It is now proposed to con- sider these three forms (two of which have many times occurred in the British Islands) separately, and it is hoped that the distinctive characters of each can be set forth with sufficient clearness. In the former editions of this work, all three were treated as one species under the name of " Gyr- Falcon" — a name properly belonging only to that form, which, though frequenting countries not far removed from the United Kingdom, does not appear to have been as yet taken within its limits. In G-melin's edition of Linnaeus's celebrated ' Systema Naturae/ these three large northern Falcons are as sufficiently defined as many other birds about which no doubt has ever arisen, though Gmelin did his best to complicate the matter by misapplying some of the names and descriptions of other authors in the case of two of them, and while giving to each the rank of a species, ingeniously made it also a variety of the other. It is the first and third of these three species, as they stand in his work, which require especial attention in a ' History of British Birds.' The second may for the moment be dismissed with the remark that it is undoubtedly the real Falco gyrfalco described by Linnaeus as a Swedish bird, and the true Gyr -Falcon of falconers. It is the third of Gmelin's species, F. candicans, since named by Mr. John Hancock F. grcenlandicus, which is the subject of the pre- sent article. Though this form has been always clearly distinguished by falconers from the other two, much con- fusion respecting them has been caused by the imperfect knowledge of older writers, which it would be a hard task, if indeed at all possible, to unravel. Of later authors, Pastor Brehm, in 1823, seems to have been the first who decidedly distinguished between the two Falcons which have 38 FALCONID.K been presumed to have their respective homos mainly, though not, as will presently be soon, exclusively, in Greenland and Iceland. Iii L 838, Mr. Hancock brought the matter before the British Association, at its mooting at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; but in the paper which he then read (Annals of Natural History, ii. p. 241), he was led, as Brehm before him had been, into the error of confounding tho adult of the Green- land bird with the young, and of describing this latter as being brown like the immature Icelander. It was the con- fusion arising from this misconception which most probably hindered his views from meeting with more general accept- ance ; and it was not until 1854 that he was able to correct himself, but in that year he announced (Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 2nd Ser. xiii. p. 110) that the Greenland Falcon was never in any stage dark-coloured, but invariably light-coloured from its youth. This opinion was grounded upon repeated observations of living birds, backed by the inspection of more than one hundred and fifty prepared specimens, and a careful comparison of no less than seventy. Mr. Hancock's latter paper seems to have been for some time much overlooked by ornithologists, and hence the erroneous notions previously existing still retain their sway in some quarters. Of late, however, Professor Schlegel, Mr. Gurney and Mr. Gould, among others, have adopted Mr. Hancock's present opinions, which it may be added are strictly in accordance with the traditions of falconers, and to him, therefore, belongs the credit of first discovering and making public the exact state of the case. It is to be observed that nearly all the true Falcons, as can be proved by keeping them in captivity, assume the plumage of maturity at their first moult, which usually takes place when the birds are from nine to fifteen months old : and, moreover, that the feathers of the young are gene- rally characterized by longitudinal markings, while those of the adult have most of the markings disposed transversely. After this one, change, there is no good reason for supposing thai the colours of the plumage materially alter at any suc- ceeding moult. The feathers become faded or bleached with GREENLAND FALCON. 39 time, but they are thrown off every year, and fresh ones take their place, the same in colour and markings as those originally assumed by the bird at its first moult. This has been observed in several instances to be the case with the •Greenland Falcon. The adult so beautifully figured by Mr. Wolf in the ' Zoological Sketches ' (plate 34), when brought to the Zoological Gardens, was said to have been taken in •Greenland the same year. Its plumage then had the longi- tudinal markings of immaturity which at the first moult changed into the transverse ones represented in the plate, and though the bird lived for several years afterwards, and regularly underwent its annual moult, Mr. Wolf, who watched it carefully, and from time to time sketched it, was convinced that no further alteration in colour took place. Prior to Mr. Hancock's discovery of this fact, it had been thought by him and others that the young of the Greenland Falcon was of a dark colour, and resembled the young of the Iceland Falcon, next to be described, and all the white Falcons, whether marked longitudinally or transversely, were believed to be adult. But this error being corrected, and the mode of determining the young as w T ell as the old of each form being established, it was not difficult to point out the characters which distinguish the two at any age. The most apparent of these may be briefly stated to lie in the bills and claws of the Greenland bird being in life of a very pale hue, while in the Icelander the same parts are more or less of a dusky horn-colour ; and, as regards the plumage, the white in the Greenland Falcon being as it were the ground- colour of each feather on which the dark marking, if one exist, is displayed, the ground in the other form being dark with a light marking thereon. In other words, in the Green- land bird, at all ages, the prevailing colour is white, while in the Icelander it is dark — being brown or grey according as the example is young or old. The Greenland Falcon seems to be most plentiful in the inhospitable regions which enclose Baffin's Bay and extend to the westward. From this tract adult birds seldom wander to other lands, though the young, especially in autumn and 40 l'AI.COXID.K. winter, occur regularly in Iceland, and not unfrequently in the Dominion of Canada, from Newfoundland (where, ac- cording to Mr. Reeks, it is a pretty regular visitant in the fall) westward, the United States, the British Islands, and even in countries still mure remote from the place of their birth. They are, no doubt, driven away by their parents, as is commonly the hahit of hirds-of-prey, and follow the large flocks of water-fowl, which are bred in the north, on their southward migration, though it would appear that the Ptar- migan forms the chief sustenance of the old birds. At the same time, it must not be supposed that in Greenland the white form only is found. In the southern districts of that country, the Iceland Falcon is certainly more numerous, and, on the other hand, there is good reason for believing that the Greenland Falcon breeds in some of the northern parts of British America, and perhaps even in the Old World. Writing of what was doubtless this form of Falcon, Sir John Richardson, in the 'Fauna Boreali-Americana,' says: — "In the middle of June, 1821, a pair of these birds attacked me as I was climbing in the vicinity of their nest, which was built on a lofty precipice on the borders of Point Lake, in latitude 651 . They flew in circles, uttering loud and harsh screams, and alternately stooping with such velocity, that their motion through the air produced a loud rushing noise; they struck their claws within an inch or two of my head. I endeavoured, by keeping the barrel of my gun close to my cheek, and suddenly elevating its muzzle when they were in the act of striking, to ascertain whether they had the power of instantaneously changing the direc- tion of their rapid course, and found that they invariably ruse above the obstacle with the quickness of thought, show- ing equal acuteness of vision and power of motion. Although their flight was much more rapid, they bore considerable resemblance to the Snowy Owl." Sir John also remarks that at the season at which he saw them, the ground was still partially covered with snow and the lakes with ice, hut that this bird, like the Owl just men- tioned, is well adapted, "from the whiteness of its plumage, GREENLAND FALCON. 41 for traversing a snowy waste without alarming the birds on which it preys/' and further, that when the Falcon " pounces down upon a flock of Ptarmigan, the latter endeavour to save themselves by diving instantly into the loose snow, and making their way beneath it to a considerable distance." Midway between Asia and America, this white Falcon was seen at sea a little north of Behring's Island by Mr. Ban- nister. Crossing the Pacific, it is, according to Professor Schlegel, known to the Japanese ; and it certainly occurs on the continent of Asia, though whether its character in Siberia is that of a native or visitor only, there is not at present enough evidence to decide. A specimen obtained by Pallas is preserved in the Museum at Berlin, and, though regarded by some writers as an adult, is, according to the views here adopted, a bird of the year : and, if that be the case, the question of its origin is left undecided. Dr. von Middendorff says that the large Falcons observed by him, even as high as lat. 7oh° K, were always in dark plumage; and the same would seem to have been the case with those seen in South-eastern Siberia by Herr Eadde, but the single specimen from the Amoor Eiver described by Herr von Schrenck appears to have belonged to the Greenland form ; and though his account leaves it questionable whether this example was adult or immature, it would seem to have .been the latter. Falco candicans is said by Professor Eversmann to occur, though not commonly, on the Ural Mountains, but it may be open to doubt whether the bird he means be really the same as the subject of this article. Captain Salvin and Mr. Brodrick, in their ' Falconry in the British Islands,' state that they "have been informed by travellers, that some few large white Falcons, which must be Greenland Falcons, are caught annually in their passage over the Caspian Sea, and that they are highly prized by the falconers of Syria and Persia." It has been already said that this Falcon occurs yearly in Iceland, but it does not breed there ; and the only instance on record of its having been seen in that island in summer is that mentioned by Herr Preyer in the narrative of his VOL. I. G 42 FALCON 1 1 Uv travels. It has very probably occurred on the continent of Europe, but, owing to the way in which it has been con- founded with thf cognate forms, the point cannot at present lie derided. The same confusion renders useless many of the records of the appearance of large Falcons in the United Kingdom ; hut the following seem trustworthy as referring to the subject of this article. The young bird from which the figure here given was taken, was shot in Pembrokeshire in a warren belonging to Lord Cawdor, and by him presented to the Zoological Society whence it passed to the British Museum, where it now is. It had been observed, says Mr. Tracey (Zoologist, p. 2639), by his father for eight or ten days before it was killed. A specimen taken at Port Eliot, in Cornwall, and now in the collection of Mr. Rodd, as stated in the second edition of his 'List of British Birds' (but said by Mr. Brooking Lowe to be the example whose occurrence on the Lynher, in February, .1834, was mentioned by Dr. Edward Moore) is believed by Mr. Rodd to be of this form, as is probably one obtained at the Lizard, and also recorded by him. Hunt, in his 'British Ornithology,' has figured an example taken alive on Bungay Common in Suffolk, some sixty years since. but from its tameness it had possibly escaped from a falconer. In Norfolk one was killed, according to Mr. Stevenson, in February, 1848, near Cromer, and other large white Fal- cons have been seen in that county, .as well as in Suffolk. In Yorkshire, there is Mr. Hancock's excellent authority for the occurrence of one, which was wounded near York in February, 1837, and kept alive for some time by Mr. Allis; and Mr. Roberts has recorded (Zool., p. 4558) one which was killed in Robin Hood's Bay, in November, 1854. A young male killed in [slay, in February, L838, has come under Mr. Hancock's inspection, but at least four are mentioned by Mr. Robert Gray, in his work, as having been killed of late years in the Hebrides : while two more have, on the same authority , occurred in other parts of Scotland — one in Lanarkshire in 1835, and the other, an immature male, now in Mr. New- come's collection, in Perthshire in the spring of 1862. The GKEENLAND FALCON. 43 example described and figured in Pennant's 'British Zoology/ was said to have been shot near Aberdeen, and the engraving shows it to have been a young bird. Messrs. F. H. Salvin and Brodrick, in their work before cited, also state that on two occasions, about 1840, a large white Falcon was seen in Boss-shire, and that in 1850 Messrs. St. John and Hancock saw a Greenland Falcon near Elgin. On the 3rd of March, 1866, according to Dr. Saxby (Zool.s.s. p. 288), a female was shot on Balta, one of the Shetlands, and this example is now in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junior. In Ireland, Thompson mentions one killed more than thirty years since in Donegal, and subsequently a second, shot at Drumboe Castle in the same county. Mr. Blake- Knox has recorded a third Irish specimen, which is in the Museum of the Dublin Natural History Society, and appears to have been killed in the winter of 1862-3. Little is known of the nidification of this Falcon, but it probably does not differ much in this respect from the bird next to be described. Holboll, who was for some years Governor of the Danish settlements in Greenland, states that he never saw but one breeding pair of white Falcons, and the only large Falcon's nest he took evidently belonged to the Iceland form, or, at any rate, to that race of it which inhabits South Greenland. Three eggs obtained through him, however, and marked as those of the white bird, are in the collection formed by the late Mr. Wolley, and measure from 2-27 to 212 by 1-83 to T75 in. They are suffused with pale reddish-orange, having a few spots of a darker orange-brown, or dull red, or are mottled with pale brownish- orange on a white ground. So much has been written concerning Falconry, that it need not be dwelt upon here at any length. No birds were more eagerly sought and more highly prized by the followers of that now nearly obsolete sport than the Greenland Fal- cons captured in Iceland, and sent thence to the potentates of Norway and Denmark. The preference accorded to these white birds is of very ancient date, for Professor Schlegel, in his 'Traite de Fauconnerie,' — at once the most learned 44 FA I.f ONI I I.E. and most magnificent of the many works relating to the subject — quotes (p. 77) from Madox's 'History of the Ex- chequer' (London: 1701, p. ISO) a passage to the effect that in the fifth year of King Stephen's reign, altont 1139, one Outi of Lincoln had to pay a line of one hundred Norwegian Hawks, and one hundred "Girfals," of which lasl ii was stipulated that six were to be white; and later, as appears from several passages in Eymer's 'Foedera' (Londini: 1705, pp. 1071, 1075, and 1087), Norwegian and white Falcons formed royal gifts. Thus, in 1279, Magnus King of Norway writing from Bergen to Edward I., sends him "aliquos G-erofalcones ; " and this same Magnus on his death-bed, in 12S0, left his sons to Edward's care, accom- panying the bequest with a present of two noble white Falcons and six grey ones. While King Edward, in 1282, writing to Alphonso of Castille, transmits him four grey Falcons, of which two were trained to Cranes and Herons, and apologizes for sending no white ones, having lately lost nine, but adds that messengers had already gone to fetch some more from Norway, of which he himself would by-and- bye be the bearer. In the last century, we learn from Horrebow that the falconers of the King of Denmark, who were annually despatched to Iceland, paid the natives who caught: the birds from twice to three times as much for white as for grey ones. This same writer also mentions that "in winter whole nights of Falcons come over from Greenland [to Iceland] and are chiefly white." The adult specimen of the ( J-reenland Falcon, now in the Museum of Newcastle-on-Tyne, from which Bewick's woodcut was drawn, was given to Mr. Tunstall by the then Lord Orford, a great falconer, who obtained ii from Iceland or Greenland, and had used it for many years in taking Hares and Rabbits; but these large Falcons wore most valued for flights at Cranes and Herons. The preceding remarks on the different characters of the Greenland and Iceland Falcons render any minute descrip- tion of the former unnecessary; but it should be observed thai in both forms the plumage is subject to great variation in markings and tint, and this variation is, subject to the rules GREENLAND FALCON. 45 already laid down, not dependent upon age. The young of the Greenland Falcon is more or less white, like the adult ; but the old birds always have the upper surface to a greater or less extent adorned with heart-shaped spots or transverse blotches of black or very dark slate-colour, and these some- times approach each other so nearly as to form bands. The head is pure white or only slightly streaked. Beneath, the markings are less numerous than above, and the under tail- coverts are spotless. In the first plumage, the dark markings are commonly of a paler colour, being blackish-brown of a deeper or lighter shade ; and these, on the body-feathers generally, instead of being transverse or heart-shaped, are longitudinal or tear- shaped. When they take this last form, the birds are of singular beauty. In both young and old the flight-feathers of the wings and tail are ordinarily barred, but the latter are often entirely white. A very large series of examples may be compared without finding two which are exactly similar, and there can be little doubt that the bird which is sparsely marked in its youth will be as sparsely marked when old ; while, on the other hand, the closely-marked young will remain as closely marked when adult — a rule which holds equally good in the Iceland Falcon, where the dark or light complexion is permanent. The cere, orbits and feet are of a pale yellow in the adult Greenland Falcon, and light bluish- grey in the young. The irides, as are those of all the true Falcons (except as a rare individual peculiarity), are dark. The specimen here figured measured twenty-three inches from the point of the beak to the end of the tail ; the wing, from the carpal joint to the lip, is about fifteen inches. 46 ACC1PITRES. FALCOXID.E. FA LOOM DM Falco islandus, J. F. G-melin*. . THE ICELAND FALCON. Falco gyrfalco (in part)"f*. The chief differences between the subject of the preceding article anil the Iceland Falcon have therein been succinctly mentioned. It remains to point out the characters which distinguish the latter Prom the true G-yr-Falcon of the Scan- dinavian Peninsula ; and probably of countries further to the eastward. In immature plumage the two birds greatly re- * Sy»t. Nat. i. p. 271 (1788). f Not Falco gyrfalco, Linnaeus. ICELAND FALCOX. 47 semble each other, so much so, that it is often not easy at first sight to separate them, especially as the Icelander, like the Greenland Falcon, is subject to a considerable amount of variety in the prevailing shade of tint, and it is quite possible that examples of the true Gyr-Falcon have occurred in these islands, and have been mistaken for the commoner form. As a rule, however, it may be asserted that in the Iceland Falcon the crown of the head is lighter, and generally much lighter, in colour than the back, while in the G-yr-Falcon the crown of the head and the back are of the same hue, or the former is darker. In the Gyr-Falcon, also, there is com- monly a very perceptible black mystacial streak or patch, which in adults of this form is often as much developed as we find it in the Common or Peregrine Falcon, and the coloration generally is darker than in the Icelander. The late Mr. Hoy, who was well versed in Falconry, and seems to have been the first English writer to clearly distinguish the two forms, has pointed out (Mag. Xat. Hist. vi. p. 108) some other differences. The Icelander, he says, rather exceeds the Gyr-Falcon of Xorway in size ; the tail is considerably shorter; the wings are, in proportion, longer, and the head is larger, so much so, that, in modelling the hoods for trained birds of the two kinds, falconers use different blocks. Whether all these distinctive features can be established on the comparison of a large series of specimens, is perhaps uncertain, but it does appear that in some parts at least of the "structure of the two forms there exists a remarkable difference of proportion, which does not seem to have been hitherto noticed. The average length of the sternum and coracoid in Falco islandus, as ascertained by the careful measurement of six female specimens, not specially selected for the purpose, in the Museum of the University of Cam- bridge, is 5 - 46861 in., while the average length of the same bones in as many specimens of F. gyofalco of the same sex,. and in the same Museum, is 5'06383 in. This would at once show that the Icelander has the longer body of the two, by nearly half an inch; but the difference becomes more striking- when it is found that the breadth of the sternal 48 falconiDjE. apparatus does not vary in accordance with its length, being occasionally absolutely broadest in the Gyr-Falcon; and, further, that the disproportion is chiefly caused by the elon- gation of the coracoid bones in the Icelander, where the sternum alone lias an average length of 3'G5U08 in., against 3 "47143 in. in the true Gyr-Falcon. As a constant inhabitant of Europe, the Iceland Falcon is only known in the island whence it takes its name, and is there by no means uncommon, breeding in precipitous cliffs or ranges of reck bordering the numerous lakes, winch are thronged during the summer by innumerable water-fowl, and thereby securing a plentiful supply of fend fur its offspring, though it is stated that Ptarmigans form the chief prey of the adults, and such of the young as pass the winter in that country, when it is comparatively deserted by aquatic birds. Must of the young, however, wander southward at thai season, and examples annually visit the Faeroes, Norway, Denmark-. Germany, and Holland. In the British Islands, move probably have occurred than is the case with the Greenland Falcon, but of the many so-called " Gyr-Falcons " recorded as seen or taken here, the number which can be with certainty determined to he Icelanders is perhaps rather fewer — possibly the less conspicuous plumage of the latter does not attract so much attention. In the Shetlands, Dr. Saxby states that though formerly a regular visitor, it is now only occasionally seen. Mr. Robert Gray says that, between 1835 and 1851, several were 1 shot in the northern counties of Scotland, and that within the last four years he is satisfied that four or five have been killed in the western parts of that kingdom. An Iceland Falcon, which had for some time haunted a farm-yard, preying on the poultry, was shot on A'allay, one of the outer Hebrides, in September, 1865. This bird is in the collection of Dr. Dewar of Glasgow. Another, a fine male, was shot in the October of the preceding year in North Fist, and a third was about the same time washed ashore on the west side of that island. Mr. Gray also learned from Mr. Elwes that a fourth was shot on Islay, and mentions one that was trapped in ICELAND FALCON. 49 1866 at Grlendaruelj in Argyllshire. As regards England, Thompson quotes from a letter of Mr. Hancock's the occur- rence of a young bird at Bellingham, on the North Tyne, in January, 1845, which was then in the collection of Mr. Charles Adamson of Newcastle ; and this capture is also recorded by Mr. Bold, in ' the Zoologist ' for that year. The same letter also notices an Iceland Falcon, in its first plumage, killed at Normanby near Guisborough, in Yorkshire, in March, 1837, of which a brief description, by the late Mr. Hogg, appeared in the volume of the useful periodical just mentioned. Both these birds are now in Mr. Hancock's col- lection. Mr. Borrer possesses an adult Iceland Falcon shot at Mayfield, in Sussex, in January, 1845. These, with an im- mature specimen in the Norwich Museum, killed at Inver- broome, in Boss-shire, 1851 — probably one of those already included by Mr. Gray — and a young male from Scotland, in the possession of Mr. Gurney, Junior, are all the British examples which at the present time can be, with any amount of certainty, referred to the Iceland Falcon. This bird is believed to breed in Greenland, but only in the southern parts, and seems to be of not very rare occurrence along the coast of Labrador, where, according to Audubon, it breeds ; but the examples figured as having been shot from their nests by him, are obviously immature, and not adult, as he and his party imagined. It is worthy of remark that many of the specimens obtained from Labrador are very dark in colour, but they seem to be always birds of the year. To judge from Bichardson's account, it is not uncommon in the Fur-Countries, where it, as well as Falco candicans, pro- bably breeds. On the western side of the continent, adults have been obtained in Alaska, where it is said by Mr. Dall to be resident, and usually confined to the mountains, breed- ing, according to Professor Spencer F. Baird, both there and on the Lower Mackenzie Biver indifferently on trees * and cliffs. The plumage of specimens from this territory trans- mitted by that naturalist to England for comparison, differs * In Lapland Falvo gyrfalco, though usually breeding on cliffs, occasionally has its nest in a tree. — Ootheca WbUeyana, pp. 95, 96. VOL. I. II 50 FALCONID^E. only from thai of [celandic examples in being slightly darker (Proc. Zool. Soe. 1870, p. 384); but the British Museum contains an immature specimen from Kotxelme Sound, which is as deeply coloured as the Labrador birds, and might at first sight be taken for a Gyr-Falcon. Whether Falcu islandus crosses to Asia cannot be determined, for the dark examples seen by Dr. von Middendorff and Herr Radde in Siberia, and mentioned in the foregoing article, weir al least as likely to have been the young of Falco gyrfalco. From information supplied to Mr. Hewitson by Mr. Proc- tor, the latter saw in northern Iceland several deserted nests of this Falcon, being too late to find any tenanted by the owners. This was in the beginning oi August, and from one of them lie took an addled egg. The nest was com- posed of sticks and roots, and lined with wool, much re- sembling that of a Raven, to which bird it might originally have belonged. Strewn around it lay the remains of many Whimbrels, Golden Plovers, Guillemots, and Ducks. All the nests he saw were in cliffs, forming the boundaries of freshwater lakes, but none of them so high in the mountains as he expected to have found them. A similar account of a nest, seen by him in 1821, is given by Faber. This, the only one he found, was in south-western Iceland. It was large and flat, placed on the upper part of an inaccessible wall of rock. There were three full-grown young, two of which, on the 6th of duly, had already left it and sat near by. The old birds Hew around screaming, but did not attack him. Remains of various species of sea-fowl lay about. Later in the year, Faber adds, both young and old approach the homesteads, where they sit on elevations, and often fight with the Ravens. Four seems to be the proper complement of eggs; they are suffused or closely freckled with reddish- orange or pale reddish-brown on a dull white ground, which commonly is hardly discernible between the markings, though these are sometimes collected into blotches of con- siderable extent. Specimens measure from 2'48 to 2"13, by from L'91 to 172 in. Modern falconers do not appear to value the Icelander so ICELAND FALCON. 51 highly as did their predecessors. Still it is occasionally used at the present day, and mostly for catching Hares. Years ago it was much in vogue for taking the Kite, which often afforded excellent sport. When one of these birds was seen soaring aloft, an Owl, having a Fox's brush tied to its leg, was thrown up, whereon the Kite, imagining the Owl was carrying off a quarry, would descend, the Falcons were let go, and occasionally a flight of several miles in length followed. In the adult Iceland Falcon, as represented by the front figure of the engraving, the crown and sides of the head and the nape are white, slightly tinged with ochreous, each feather having a greyish-brown longitudinal streak, sometimes so broad that the white is reduced to a narrow margin. There is generally more or less trace of a decided mystacial stripe, and the ear-coverts are darker than the rest of the head. The back, rump and wing-coverts are of a brownish- grey, each feather with a narrow border and one or more interrupted bands of dull white, which again are often freckled with a darker shade. The secondaries and tertials are very similar, but with a greater number of bands. The wing- quills are greyish-brown, mottled, especially on the inner webs, with dirty white in the form of imperfect bars. The tail, in like manner, is barred with greyish-brown, darker above and paler beneath, the light interspaces being often much freckled, and in these darker-coloured specimens the general aspect of the whole upper surface of the bird, from a little distance, is bluish. The under parts are of a more or less pure white, with a few linear streaks on the throat along the shaft of the feathers : these streaks increase both in number and breadth till they have the form of heart-shaped spots on the breast and sides. Some specimens have the flanks and abdomen similarly marked, but in others the spots again decrease in number and extent, and the under tail- coverts seem to be never unmarked. The bill is of a bluish horn-colour, darkest at the tip ; the cere, orbits and feet are greenish-yellow, but some individuals seem never to attain LIBRARY UNIVERSE Of 52 I'AI.roXID.E. this tint fully. The claws are of a dark horn-colour, almost Mack. The irides are dark. The young, also figured in the woodcut, resemble the old as in the head, but up to the time of their first moult, the upper surface of the body is almost entirely devoid of the banded plumage which characterizes the plumage of matu- rity, ami. except for the dirty or ochreous-white herder of each feather, would he of an uniform dull brown. The quills are much the same as in the adult, hut there is an entire absence of the bluish tinge. Beneath, the colouring is generally much darker than in the adult, each feather bearing a broad longitudinal mark of dark brown. The bill resembles that of the adult, but the cere, tarsi, and feet are bluish-grey. Examples <>f the Iceland Falcon are occasionally found showing a tendency to albinism, having perhaps two or three feathers on one side nearly pure white, while the corresponding ones on the other side are normal in their colouring. At other times the pied markings are more regularly disposed ; and it was a specimen so diversified which led Mr. Hancock into the error, which he afterwards corrected as before mentioned. The whole length of the adult female is about twenty-five inches: the wing, from the carpal joint, is over sixteen inches. The male is from twenty to twenty-one inches in length, with a wing of about fourteen inches. PEREGRINE FALCON. ACGIPITBES. 53 FALGONIDM. Falco peregrinus, J. F. G-melin* THE PEKEGKINE FALCOX. Falco peregrinus. The great docility of the Common or Peregrine Falcon, and the comparative ease with which the birds are procured, has rendered them the most frequent objects of the falconer's care and tuition, and it is this species which is the most commonly used at the present day by those who still pursue the amusement of hawking. Formerly this diversion was * Syst. Nat. i. p. 272 (1788). 54 i'au mniiu:. the pride of the rich, and these birds, as well as their eggs, were preserved by various legislative enactments. So valuable were they considered when possessed of the various qualities most in request, thai in the reign of James I. Sir Thomas Monson is said to have spent a thousand pounds in obtaining two Falcons; and a variety of interesting details as to the price of these and other Hawks, will be found in Mr. Hart- ing's 'Ornithology of Shakespeare.' The qualities of a good Falcon have been so aptly described by Walton in his 'Com- plete Angler/ as addressed by Auceps to his companions, that, illustrating the powers and habits of the bird, the pas- sage is here in part introduced. " In the air my noble, gene- rous Falcon ascends to such a height, as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are not able to reach to : their bodies are too gross for such high elevation: but from which height, I can make her to descend by a word from my mouth, which she both knows and obeys, to accept of meat from my band, to own me for her master, to go home with me, and be willing the next day to afford me the like recreation." How much the former predilection for this particular spoi t lias now subsided, is well known, and though it will doubt- less for a long time number some votaries in these islands, the change wbich the face of the country has undergone during the last century — to say nothing of the improvement in fire-arms, renders it futile for any but the most sanguine to hope that the palmy clays of Falconry may be restored. The flight of the Heron to bis home, when the best oppor- tunity is afforded to the falconer, is nowadays rendered uncertain and rare, through the complete drainage of wide tracts of land, and the larger heronries are in a great mea- sure broken up and their inhabitants scattered. Failing the Heron, the Eook affords the best and surest sport, but Eook- hawking requires an open country, devoid of trees which may shelter the quarry, and the custom of planting has now- become general, and lias deprived many such a district of its former aptitude for the pursuit of this amusement. Yet the practice of Falconry is still far from being extinct with us, and in certain parts of all three of the United Kingdoms it PEREGRINE FALCON. 55 is followed b} 7 gentlemen who are favoured by the localities in which they live. More than this, some of these enthu- siastic sportsmen have achieved feats unknown to the fal- coners of old ; for instance, the training of Peregrine Falcons reared in confinement from the nest to fly at and take Herons " on the passage " from their feeding-grounds to their homes, when in ancient clays, as appears from old books, it was con- sidered a sufficiently gallant exploit if a Heron roused from a river-bank were brought again " to soil," as it was termed, by a Falcon which had been reclaimed after it had developed and acquired full powers of flight by the enjoyment of com- plete liberty. This change in the system of Falconry has probably been due in a great measure to the employment of Dutch falconers, mostly from the village of Falconswaerd, or Valkenswaard, in North Brabant; but even their mode of training has been improved by our own countrymen. This village, says Sir John Sebright, writing in 1826, "has for many years furnished falconers to the rest of Europe. I have known many falconers in England, and in the service of different princes on the Continent, but I never met with one of them who was not a native of Falconswaerd." Those who wish to know more on this subject may with profit con- sult Professor Schlegel's elaborate monograph, before men- tioned; it is enough to say now that falconers from this same place still direct several of the hawking establishments in Europe at the present day. It must not, however, be supposed that we are entirely devoid of native talent for Falconry ; here and there throughout the country is found a lad or young man in whom its genius is strong, and in particular must be mentioned a Scottish family of the name of Barr, several members of which have evinced uncommon skill in the art In the language of Falconry, the female of this species is, exclusively, called the Falcon, and, on account of her greater size and power, is usually flown at Herons and Eooks : the male is called the Tiercel,* and corruptly Tassel, and is more * This term, and its French equivalent Tiercelet, is commonly said to have its origin from the male being, as was supposed, one-third less than the female ; but 56 FALCOXID.E. frequently flown at Partridges, and sometimes at Magpies. The young of the year, on account of the red tinge of their plumage, arc called, the female, a Red Falcon, and the male, a Eed Tiercel, to distinguish them from those which have accomplished their first moult. Eyas, or Xyas, is the name of a young bird taken from the nest, as distinguished from the Peregrine or Passage-Hawk, a young bird caught during the season of migration; while Haggard is used for a bird caught after the first moult is completed, and reclaimed. If kept (•vera moult, they were then called Tntermewed Hawks. The term Gentil Falcon seems to have often had a general rather than a particular meaning, and the bird so called by Pennant is certainly a G-os-Hawk, while the Lanner of the same author is a young female of the present species, at which age it bears some resemblance to the true Lanner, Falco lanarius, which probably has never been killed in this country. Sir John Sebright, in his 'Observations on Hawking,' thus • describes the mode of taking Herons: — "A well- stocked heronry in an open country is necessary for this sport, and this may he seen in the greatest perfection at Didlington in Norfolk, the seat of Colonel Wilson.* This heronry is situated mi a, river, with an open country on every side of it. The herons go out in the morning to rivers and ponds at a very considerable distance, in search of food, and return to the heronry towards the evening. "It is at this time that the falconers place themselves in the open country, down wind of the heronry; so that when the herons are intercepted on their return home, they are obliged to fly against the wind to gain their place of retreat. "When a heron passes, a cast (a couple) of hawks is let go. The heron disgorges his food when he finds that Professor Schlegel in his great work has shown this derivation to be an error, and the name appears to have been given from the old belief that eat-h nest contained three young bints, of which two were females and the third and smallest a male. — Traite dt Fauconverie, p. 1, note. * Subsequently Lord Berners. Didlington is now (1871) the property of Mr. Tyssen Amhurst, and the heronry, though its site is changed, still exists. PEREGRINE FALCON. 57 lie is pursued, and endeavours to keep above the hawks by rising in the air ; the hawks fly in a spiral direction to get above the heron, and thus the three birds frequently appear to be flying in different directions. The first hawk makes his stoop as soon as he gets above the heron, who evades it by a shift, and thus gives the second hawk time to get up and to stoop in his turn. In what is deemed a good flight, this is frequently repeated, and the three birds often mount to a great height in the air. When one of the hawks seizes his prey, the other soon hinds to him, as it is termed, and buoyant from the motion of their wings, the three descend together to the ground with but little velocity. The falconer must lose no time in getting hold of the heron's neck when he is on the ground to prevent him from injuring the hawks. It is then, and not when he is in the air, that he will use his beak in his defence. Hawks have, indeed, sometimes, but very rarely, been hurt by striking against the heron's beak when stooping ; but this has been purely by accident, and not (as has been said) by the heron's presenting his beak to his pursuer as a means of defence. When the heron flies down wind, he is seldom taken, the hawks are in great danger of being lost, and as the flight is in a straight line, it affords but little sport."* Thompson, in his 'Birds of Ireland,' mentions that a Peregrine Falcon "having caught a landrail which it was about to eat on a house-top, instantly gave chase to another rail that was sprung, and, still retaining its first victim, secured the second with its other foot: — it bore off both tog-ether." * In illustration of the habit of the quarry to " take down wind," Mr. W. Aldis Wright, one of the editors of the ' Cambridge Shakespear,' lias kindly supplied an explanation given him by a friend, no less ingenious than simple, of the often-quoted passage in 'Hamlet': — "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a Hawk from a Heronshaw." Hawking in the morning, under the old system the best time for sport, if the wind be from the north-west the birds fly so that any person watching them has the sun in his eyes, and is therefore not able easily to tell the Hawk from the Heron. W T hen the wind is southerly the birds fly away from the sun, and any one can know which is which. Hamlet's application of the old saw was to show that his madness was much akin to other men's sanity. VOL. I. 1 58 FALCONIDiE. Si. bold as well as rapid is the Peregrine Falcon, that it has frequently interfered and robbed the sportsman of his name in die manner described under the article "Golden Eagle," of which instances are related by Selby and others. Bui these daring birds are not always successful. The Peregrine Falcon most generally has its nest in high and inaccessible cliffs, usually near the sea or lakes: hut in one locality, in Lapland, Wolley found that it bred on the ground in a large marsh, and eggs from more than one nest in this situation were obtained by his collectors for several years.* Mr. Farman mentions its having its nest in a tree in Bulgaria; and that is its habit in Java, according to Professor Schlegel; instances also are known of church towers being occupied. The eggs are commonly four in number, and except that they are ordinarily of a much deeper colour, resemble these of the last species. Seme are uniformly suffused with a brick-red, hut a close freckling of dull crimson or deep orange-brown, with spots of a darker shade, is more pre- valent. Occasionally a purplish hue is very perceptible, and sometimes the colouring matter is irregularly collected into large blotches, or only distributed at one end, leaving the rest of the surface with the pale yellowish-white ground ex- posed. They vary much in shape and size, measuring from '2"1 to 1*77 by 1'74 to 148 in. A nest in Sutherland, de- scribed by Wolley, was on a little platform, some four feet sipiare, in a comparatively low rock" with a good deal of vegetation, including ivy, upon it. The hare place for the nesl was about eighteen inches across, and thereon were col- lected some little fragments of sticks and a multitude of birds' bones, with a few bones of sheep, probably brought to constrict the nest with, ami also many little hits of stone. * The persistency with which many birds-of-prey continue, during a long period of years, to use one spot for breeding is tolerably well-known ; but a very remarkable instance is recorded in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana' (p. 98). A Falcon's nest "D a hill called Avasaxa in Finland is mentioned by the French astronomer Maupertuis, as having 1 n observed by him in the year IT.'iti. In 17'J9 it was rediscovered by Skjbldebrand and Acerbi. In is."..', Wolley found it tenanted, and, by examining the remains .!■;. urine Falcon is, however, by no means restricted to the neighbourhood of the sea. but breeds on sites in the interior, provided thai they be sufficiently adapted from their impreg- nability and resources. The same was, if it is not now, the ease in Ireland, where, according to Thompson, it inhabited suitable localities throughout the country, breeding in inland as well as marine cliffs. In the greater part of England, however, it is best known as a migrant most commonly met with in autumn, but occasionally wintering in some spot where abundance of food is obtainable. Such migrants are almost invariably birds of the year — -real "Passage" or "Peregrine Hawks," in falconers' language; but in spring it is not very unusual for adults ("Haggards") to make their appearance, which would appear to be on their way northward, and after staying for a week or ten days resume their journey. Such a Falcon, remarkable for her extremely pale plumage, was known to the Editor for several years as haunting every spring for about that space of time a small plantation of old Scotch- firs at Icklingham in Suffolk-, and during her stay she sub- sisted entirely on Stock-Doves, though the surrounding heaths abounded in Partridges. It may be that such a case is exceptional, but it is certain to every unprejudiced mind that the Peregrine Falcon, though without doubt at times destructive to game, is much less so than is supposed by those who only listen to the stories of their gamekeepers instead of observing facts for themselves. Indeed, there are strong grounds for believing that the presence of some Fal- cons or other birds-of-prey is absolutely beneficial to the interests of the game-preserver, since they unquestionably act as the sanitary police of Nature. On this subject Mr. Gage Earle Freeman, in his 'Falconry,' writes (p. 10): — "All hawks, when they have' a choice, invariably choose the easiest flight. This fact is of the last importance in the matter before us : I confess I at once give it the chief place in this argument. Who has not heard of the grouse disease? It has been attributed, sometimes respectively and sometimes collectively, to burnt heather; to heather poisoned from the dressings put on sheep; to the sheep themselves cropping PEREGRINE FALCON. 61 the tender shoots and leaves of the plant, and thus destroy- ing the grouse's food ; to the tape-worm ; to shot which has wounded but not killed ; and perhaps to other things besides. It may be, I doubt not, correctly referred to any or to all of these. Of this, however, there appears no question, that, from whatever cause it spring, it is propagated. A diseased parent produces a diseased child. Now I say that when every hawk is killed upon a large manor, the balance of Nature is forgotten, or ignored ; and that Nature will not overlook an insult. She would have kept her wilds healthy ; destroy her appointed instruments, and beware of her revenge ! " The Peregrine Falcon is found throughout Europe, with the exception of Spitsbergen and Iceland, and even in the latter there is a possibility of its accidental occurrence. Mr. Gillett believed that he saw this species in Nova Zenibla (Ibis, 1870, p. 304). In Northern Lapland, Wollev found it breeding higher in the mountains that Falco gyrfalco. It can be traced across Siberia, southward of lat. 6-4° N. to the Sea of Ochotsk, being, according to Dr. von Midden- dorff, a bird of the forest zone. It also occurs in Japan, and thence southward through China to Manilla, whence there is an example in the Norwich Museum. Motley obtained it in Borneo, and Horsfield gives it from Sumatra. The Leyden Museum contains specimens from Java, where, according to Professor Schlegel, it is rare, though it breeds in the island on trees (as has been said) and often preys on the Jungle- fowl. In this locality, in the Philippines, and in China, the true Peregrine Falcon meets the more southern form, Falco melanogenys, originally described from Australia, in which country it is universally distributed, and is distinguishable from the northern bird by the more ruddy tints and the closer barring of its lower plumage. In India, where two other nearly-allied forms, F. peregrinator and F. atriceps, also occur, F. peregrinus appears to be confined to the north-western parts ; and though Mr. Hume considers that it probably breeds within the limits of that country, Mr. Jerdon is of the contrary opinion. This last ornithologist G2 FAU'ONIU.K. imagines that the statement of its breeding in Orion, made by Mr. Layard, has also arisen in error. Do Filippi met with it in lVrsia, and Canon Tristram in Palestine, where he says that it occurs in suitable places at all times of the year. In Ecypt it is a pretty common winter-visitant, according to Dr. von Heuglin, who states that it follows the course of the Nile to lat. 10 N., and thence extends into Kordofan and Abyssinia. Sir William Jardine has a specimen from Mozambique, and it has been recorded, but probably in error, from Madagascar. In South Africa it occurs, and the Norwich Museum contains specimens from Natal and the Cape Colony, but it is probably only an accidental visitor in this part of the world, where its place is occupied by Falco minor, a very distinct form. It does not seem to have been met with anywhere in West Africa, but was more than once observed by M. Bertholet in the Canaries. On the coast of North Africa it again appears, but in the interior of the country it is represented by F. hi rim r us. In America, it has long been a matter of doubt whether the Falcon, which there admittedly represents F. peregrinus, should lie con- sidered specifically distinct from it or not, and the birds from the eastern side of the country have been separated under the name of F. anatum, while those from the west have borne that of F. nigriceps ; but of late the tendency on the part of the most competent judges has certainly been to unite the Common Falcon of the New World with that of the Old. It may be true that, as a rule, the eastern portion of the dominion of Canada and of the United States is in- habited by a bird which is generally larger and somewhat darker than that of Europe and Asia, and the western por- tion by a slightly smaller race still more deeply coloured, but the differences are by no means constant, and examples are to be found on cither side of the Atlantic which entirely agree with each other, ruder this view of the case, then, it may be said that the Peregrine Falcon inhabits suitable localities throughout the whole of the New World, from Port Kennedy, at the most northern point of the American conti- nent (whence specimens not to lie distinguished from English PEKEGKINE FALCON. 63 examples were brought by Dr. David Walker, the naturalist of the ' Fox ' expedition), to Mendoza, in the territory of the Argentine Confederation. It may be observed, however, that in the western part of South America, Chili for instance, a Falcon is met with which is much allied to, if not identical with, the F. melanogenys before mentioned. In Greenland, the Pere- grine Falcon not only occurs, but constantly breeds. The whole length of an adult Peregrine Falcon is from fifteen to eighteen inches, depending on the sex of the bird. The beak is blue, approaching to black at the point ; the cere and eyelids yellow, the irides dark hazel-brown ; the top of the head, back of the neck, space below the eye and a broad mystacial patch, nearly black ; the back, wing-coverts, and tail, bluish-slate or ash-colour, barred with a darker tint ; the primaries brownish-black, the inner webs barred and spotted with rufous-white ; the throat white, with dark longitudinal lines ; the breast rufous-white, with dark brown transverse bars ; the flanks, under tail-coverts, and the tail-feathers beneath, barred transversely with dark brown and greyish-white; legs and toes yellow, the claws black. The figure here given was taken from a very fine female of large size, in its second year, but still retaining one outer tail-feather of the first year on each side. The wing and tail-feathers are not changed in the Falconidce in their first autumn. The young, until the first moult, have the head and upper surface of the body and wing-coverts of a brownish ash- colour, the edge of each feather rufous; the under side of the body dirty- white, with dark longitudinal streaks ; the tail with irregular reddish bars, the tip white. The cere and eyelids blue; the feet yellow. The first moult begins in April or May, and proceeds gradually through the summer. This species presents very considerable individual varia- tion, though perhaps not to the same extent as the preceding. The birds which are darkest in the immature plumage, are darkest also in the adult stage ; while those which are of a light colour when young, are light when old. The feathers 64 FALCON IDAZ. of the bird of the year are often strongly tinged, especially at the edges, with rufous; and some adults are extremely rufous beneath, others having scarcely a trace of the warmer coli airing. There is a remarkable specimen in Mr. Newcome's collection, in which the belly, vent, and flanks are of a light blue-grey, with tin 1 usual dark liars. This was a bird which had been in training for some time. Occasionally, and most often in the young, the feet are of a light blue or grey. According to Professor Schlegel, the kind of food oaten by the birds makes a sensible difference in the tints of the plumage, the reddest being those which prey mostly on Ducks, or other fat water-fowl. It is, however, a well-known fact, that the greatest differences may often be seen in Eyasses from the same nest, brought up under the same conditions, and on the same diet. Mr. W. G-. Johnstone, in a communication to the 'Natu- ralist' for 1853, states that a pair of Peregrine Falcons, after having been kept in confinement for some years, not only laid two eggs, but continued to sit on them for twelve days, the male taking his share of duty. Being disturbed by strangers, the process of incubation was interrupted; but there was every reason to believe that young would have been produced from the assiduity displayed by the parent birds while they sat, and the fact that the eggs, on exami- nation, proved to be fertile. &m0 HOBBY. 65 ACC1P1TRES. FALCOXIDJ2. ;iSg fifV Falco subbuteo, Linnaeus * THE HOBBY. Falco subbuteo. The Hobby, a true Falcon, though of small size, may be considered a Peregrine Falcon in miniature, but is rather less bulky in proportion to the whole length ; the body of the bird being slender, the tail elongated, and the points of the wings reaching even beyond the tail. It sits like a Swallow, close to its perch, with its wings much crossed, and the carpal joints thrust out. In this country it is a summer visitor, appearing in April, and leaving again gene- rally in October for warmer regions, like other summer visitors. * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 127 (1766). VOL. I. K (JO FALCONIIU:. Unlike the Peregrine Falcon, the Hobby appears to prefer inland situations among wooded and well-cultivated districts, and possessing considerable power of flight, as well as persevering endurance, can be trained to fly at Larks, Quails, and Snipes. Sebright says the Hobby will take small birds if thrown up by the hand, but is not strong enough to be efficient in the field. Montagu says he has "frequently witnessed the flight of this species in pursuit of a Sky-lark, which appears to be its favourite game; and it is astonishing to observe how dexterously the little bird avoids the fatal stroke until it becomes fatigued. A Hobby in pursuit of a Lark was joined by a Hen-Harrier, who not being so rapid on wing, was usually behind, and ready to avail himself of the sudden turns the unfortunate Lark was compelled to make to avoid the talons of the Hobby; how- ever, after numberless evolutions, the Hen-Harrier relin- quished further pursuit, being unequal to the chase, and left the deadly stroke to one better adapted for rapid and durable flight, and aerial evolutions." The Hobby has been known to dash through the open window of a room at a small bird confined in a cage, and is sometimes used by bird catchers to enable them by its presence, and by exhibiting it in a particular way, called " daring," to catch Sky-larks. The Hobby, though a well-known bird, is not very nume- rous as a species. It chooses a high tree to make its nest on, occasionally taking to the remains of one of suitable size that has been deserted. The female lays three or four "s, in colour much resembling those of the Iceland Falcon before described, and measuring from 1*72 to 1"5 by l - 32 to 1-21 in. The localities to be quoted for the Hobby, shew that its distribution in England is somewhat like that of the Nightin- gale, though its habits lead it to take a wider range, and to disregard such very strict observance of limits. In Ireland t here seems to be but two instances of its occurrence that can be i lusted, line recorded by Thompson, and a second about three years since in Tipperary, the specimen being in the Museum of the Loyal Dublin Society. It certainly does not breed in HOBBY. 67 Wales. In Cornwall it is rare, according to Mr. Eodd, who only mentions two examples obtained in that country; while Dr. Bullmore, in his ' Cornish Fauna,' describes a third. In Devonshire, Dr. Moore and Mr. Brooking Eowe, in their catalogues of the birds of that county, have recorded two localities where it used formerly to breed ; and Mr. Murray Mathew stated that there was a nest near Chagford in 1870. In Somerset, Mr. Cecil Smith says that it is a very rare bird. It does not seem to be much commoner in Dorset or Wilts ; and thence Oxfordshire, Xorthamptonshire, and Lincolnshire seem to form the north-western frontier of the district in which it can be said usually to breed, though instances are known of its having done so in JSTottingham- shire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. In Scotland, according to Mr. Eobert Gray, it has probably bred in the Isle of Arran, and though not a common species throughout that kingdom, its occurrence is now so frequent as to excite some surprise that it should have escaped the observation of many previous authors ; and an example has been killed so far to the north as Caithness. In the parts of England south and east of the line indicated above, it would no doubt breed every year, were it unmolested. The Hobby is an inhabitant of the continent of Europe generally, from Spain, where, though not numerous, it breeds, to Sweden. In June, 1867, Mr. Thomas Edward Buckley obtained a male bird at Jockmock in Lapland, just on the Arctic circle, and this would appear to be its most northern limit. In Finland, at least in the middle and south, it occurs, and thence, according to Pallas, extends across the llussian dominions to Kamtchatka, Southward of this, Mr. Swinhoe met with it at various places in China. In India, it is known as a common winter visitant to some parts of the Himalayas, but is rare in the plains, and probably does not breed in the country, where the allied Falco severus takes its place. Turning westward, De Filippi obtained it in June at Marend, in Western Persia. In Palestine, Canon Tristram mentions it as a rather late summer visitor. In Egypt it would seem to be not common, 68 FALCONIH.K. and to occur ehieily in winter. Dr. A. E. Brehm obtained it on the lUue Xile. Nothing seems to be known of it further south until we approach the extremity of the con- tinent; but, though rare, it occurs in the Cape Colony where it encounters another ally, the Falco cuvieri, which last seems to range along the western coast northward. F. subbuteo again appears in the Canaries, where, according to Dr. Carl Bolle, it is rare, though found in all the islands. Mr. Drake saw it at Cape Negro, in Morocco, and the Zoological Society formerly possessed specimens from Tan- giers. In Algeria it is said, by Loche, to breed, but Canon Tristram and Mr. Salvin, the former of whom found it migratory in the desert and halting in the dayats, as if on its southward passage, arc silent on that point. The food of this species appears to consist less of birds than of coleopterous insects. The stomachs of two specimens examined by Mr. Henry Doubleday were filled with the common dung-chaffer, Geotrupcs stercorarius. Specimens of the Hobby measure from twelve to fourteen inches, depending on the sex. The male from which the figure was taken had the beak bluish horn-colour, darkest at the tip; the cere greenish-yellow, the irides dark brown; the top of the head, nape, back and upper wing-coverts, greyish-black; the edges of the feathers huffy-white ; the primaries and secondaries nearly black, edged with dull white; the two middle tail-feathers uniform greyish-black, the others slightly barred with a lighter colour, the tips also lighter. The chin and side of the neck white; the cheek and moustache black; the breast and belly yellowish- white, with longitudinal patches of brownish-black; thighs, vent and under tail-coverts rust-red; under surface of the tail-feathers bailed with dull white and greyish-black ; the legs and toes yellow; the (daws black. Old birds have the upper surface of the body bluish-grey : in young birds the plumage is tinged with rufous. -ACCIPITRES. RED-FOOTED FALCON. 69 FALCONIDuE. Falco vespertinus, Linnaeus *. THE RED-FOOTED FALCON. Falco rufipes f. The PlEd-footed Falcon, or Orange-legged Hobby, is a species of small size, and so much in its general contour resembling the Hobby, that Buffon described and figured the * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 129 (1766). f Reseke, Vogel Kurlands, p. 20 (1792). 70 FALC'OXID.E. adult male as a singular variety of that bird. The young female has more the appearance of a young Merlin. About twenty examples have been recorded of its occurrence in the British Islands since the year 1830, when four were killed in Norfolk (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 110). The majority of spe- cimens have been obtained in the eastern or southern coun- ties, as in that already named, Suffolk, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Devon and Cornwall; but it has also been met with in Berkshire, Shropshire, Yorkshire, Durham and Northumber- land. In Scotland two have been killed near Aberdeen, and in Ireland a single example in the county of Wicklow. The geographical distribution of this species, so far as it can be determined at present, has been elaborately traced by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser in their beautiful ' Birds of Europe,' and much information respecting its habits has also been compiled from various sources by those industrious authors. The Bed-footed Falcon has been obtained some five times in Sweden. In Finland, where it had been pre- viously known in a very few instances, it was, according to Dr. Malmgren, several times observed in the summer of 1809 ; and three examples were killed so far to the north as lat. 05 . It is common in the neighbourhood of Archangel, and eastward it ranges as far as the plains of Tnnkinsk in Western Siberia, which appears to be its limit; since the bird, formerly confounded with this species, and found in Amoorland, China and India, is distinct, the Falco amu- rensis, the adult male of which possesses white, instead of lead-coloured under wing-coverts, while the female and young resemble more the common Hobby. Falco vespe?*tinus has been shot at Trebizond, and Canon Tristram mentions it as a scarce summer-visitant in Palestine. It passes through Egypt in autumn and less frequently in spring; it may pos- siblv occur further to the southward in Eastern Africa, but there F. amure7isis reappears and extends to Natal. In Damaraland this last has been only known to occur once, while F. vespertinus, according to the late Mr. C. J. Anderssoii, arrives there during the wet season in incredible numbers; and further to the north, in Benguela, a large EED-FOOTED FALCON. 71 series of specimens was obtained and sent to Professor du Bocage at Lisbon. Loche obtained it in Algeria, but none of the English ornithologists who have visited that country seem to have met with it. It is not common in Spain and France, in the latter appearing only in some years, but then in flights. Having thus traced the limits of the Eed-f ooted Falcon, it remains to fill up the interval. In some parts of Italy it is said to be common, but only on passage ; and Dr. Salvadori says that it has not bred there to his knowledge. It is most numerous in the eastern parts of Europe, in Greece, Turkey, Southern Eussia and Hungary. In the country last named, Mr. A. H. Cochrane, as he states in a note contributed to the third edition of Mr. Hewitson's oological work, found it breeding, often in small societies, and taking possession of the nests of the Crow, Eook, or Magpie. It lays from four to six eggs, some of which, obtained by that gentleman, are blotched and mottled with two or three shades of light orange- brown on a yellowish-white ground, and measure from l - 37to 1'47 by 1*13 to 116 in. In Central Germany it seems only to occur occasionally ; but throughout the whole extent of its range, except perhaps in the Greek Archipelago, where Dr. Erhard says it winters, it would appear to be an essentially mi- gratory species, visiting the north in spring and summer and the south at the other seasons. Its habits have been described at great length by Professor von Nordmann, as observed by him near Odessa, and his account of them has been translated by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser in their work just mentioned. It arrives there at the beginning of April, often in astounding numbers, and for some time continues in flocks, the birds dispersing as the breeding season approaches, and reuniting in autumn before they leave the country. While they are in flocks, they indulge towards evening in very remarkable flights at a great height, pursuing very nearly the same course in a straight line to a certain point, and then turning back sharply to repeat the evolution. After some hours, the whole flock, as if at a given signal, goes suddenly to roost in parties of some twenty or thirty. Their food consists chiefly 72 falcon 1 1 u:. of orthopterous or neuropterous insects, which the birds seize with their feet when on the wing; but they also search on the ground for dung-beetles, and lizards occasionally form pari of their diet, though they do notappearto proyon birds. Their cry resembles, says the same observer, that of the Kestrel, but is uttered less frequently. This species goes through several interesting changes of plumage, which are here described in detail. The upper figure in the engraving at the head of the article represents a young female; the lower one an adult male. In the adult male, the base of the beak is yellowish-white, the other part dark horn-colour; the cere and eyelids reddish-orange, the irides dark brown; the head, neck, back, upper surface of the wings and tail, the throat, breast, belly, and under wing-coverts, of a uniform dark lead-colour; the thighs, vent and under tail-coverts, deep ferruginous; the less and toes reddish flesh-colour; the claws yellowish-white, with dusky tips. The whole length of the bird eleven inches. The young males before their first change are similar to the young females, as hereafter described. At their first change, they become of a uniform pearl-grey; the thighs and flanks ferruginous; beak, cere, eyes, legs, toes, and claws, as in the old male. The vignette is taken from a young male that has nearly completed his first change, but still retains a portion of the barred appearance of his first livery on the outer or distal part of the wing, on the lower part of the back and the tail-feathers, the middle pair only of which are as yet moulted. The adult female has the beak, cere, irides and legs as in the male; the head and back of the neck reddish-brown; the eve surrounded with dusky feathers almost black; the whole of the back, wing-coverts and tail, blackish-grey, barred transversely with bluish-black ; upper surface of the primaries uniform dusky-black. The chin and throat nearly white; the breast and all the under surface of the body pale rufous, with dark reddish-brown longitudinal streaks; the thighs plain rufous; under wing-coverts rufous, RED-FOOTED FALCON. 73 with transverse bars of dark brown ; under surface of the primaries blackish-grey, with numerous transverse bars of bluish-grey : under surface of the tail bluish-grey, with nine or ten transverse bars of bluish-black, which are broader as they approach the tip. Young females have the top of the head reddish-brown with dusky streaks ; the eyes encircled with black, with a small black pointed moustache descending from the front of the eye ; ear-coverts white ; upper surface of the body dark brown, the feathers ending with reddish-brown; primaries dusky-black, the inner edges and tips buffy-white; the tail dark brown, with. numerous transverse bars of reddish-brown ; throat white ; sides of the neck, the breast, and all the under surface of the body, pale reddish-white, with brown longi- tudinal streaks and patches on the breast; the thighs uniform pale ferruginous ; beak, cere and hides as in the adult female. vol.. L 74 AGOIPJTBES. FALCON I D.-K. FALCONID.-E. Falco .-esalon, Gmelin *. THE MERLIN". Falco a-salon. The Merlin, in some parts of the country known as the " Stone-Falcon," is one of the smallest of the British Falco- nidce, and being of rapid flight and great courage, possesses, on a diminished scale, all the attributes and characters of a true Falcon. So bold as well as powerful, in proportion to his size, is this little bird, that a male Merlin, not weighing more than six ounces, lias been seen to strike and kill a Partridge that was certainly mure than twice his own weight ; and so tenacious generally is he of his prey, that it is very difficult to make him quit anything he has taken. The more Syst. Nat. i. p. 284 (1788). MERLIN. 75 common food of species is small birds, and they have been seen in chase of the smaller shore-birds, as the Sanderling and Dunlin. The Merlin was formerly often, and is now occasion- ally, trained ; and will take Snipes, Larks, Blackbirds and Thrushes. • Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick say: "The strongest female Merlins may be trained to fly pigeons admirably, and from their small size, and the way in which they follow every turn and shift of the quarry, are better adapted for this chase than the Peregrine ; unlike it, they do not stop when the pigeon takes cover in a hedge or tree, but dash in and generally secure it." The Merlin was formerly considered to be only a winter- visitor to this country, and in the southern parts of Eng- land that is without doubt its character, though instances are recorded of its also remaining to breed. Mr. Murray Mathew informed Mr. More that it has been seen on Exemoor, in June, and its nest is said to have been found more than once in the New Forest. On Dr. Bree's authority it is stated to breed in Essex, and Herefordshire and Shropshire are counties in which it occasionally does so. In Wales, too, it has its nest, but only regularly in the north. On the Derbyshire moors it breeds annually, as also in every county of Great Britain, from Yorkshire northward to the Shetlands. In Ireland, it frequents chiefly the mountainous districts throughout the island, descending in winter to the lower parts of the country. This species is confined to the more northern portion of the Old World, its place in America being taken by the kindred Falco columbarius, which, among other differences, is said to be recognizable by the fewer bars on its tail. The Norwich Museum contains a specimen of the Merlin, caught at sea in May, 1867, by Mr Edward Whymper, on his voyage to Greenland, in lat. 57° 41' N., and long. 35° 23' W., and this appears to be the most western limit ever reached by the species. In Iceland it is very common in summer, arriving at the end of March and leaving in October ; in the Fseroes it remains all the year. It breeds in suitable localities 76 FALCOXIH.K throughout Norway, and the northern part of Sweden, as well as in Finland. Thence it ranges across Eussia and Siberia, to the Sea of Ochotsk, where Dr. von Middendorff found it breeding, but it: is said not to he very numerous in Eastern Siberia, and the specimens described thence by Herr Eadde differed slightly from European ones. It does not seem to have been observed in Japan, hut Mr. Swinhoe has met with it several times in China. In India it visits the Punjaub, and upper portions of the North-west Provinces in the cold weather, and Mr. Jerdon says it is trained to fly at the Hoopoe, and also at Quails. It has been found at Erzeroum, and was obtained in winter at Smyrna by the late Mr. H. E. Strickland. In Palestine it is not uncommon at the same season, as is also the case in Egypt. Dr. Hart- mann found it in northern Xubia, and the Leyden Museum possess a specimen from Khartoum. Loche records it as breeding in Algeria, but the statement seems open to doubt. It occurs, generally at the season of migration, in most, if not all, of the principal islands of the Mediterranean, and is not uncommon in winter in Spain. Throughout Europe it is pretty universally distributed, but the southern limits of its breeding-range cannot at present be accurately defined. The Merlin makes its scanty nest on the ground, in rocks, or occupies that of some other bird in a tree. The first is the mode it usually follows in Britain, but in Lapland the last is as commonly its practice. It lays from four to six- eggs, which arc sometimes uniformly suffused with a deep brick-red, often varied, however, by mottling of a darker shade, a slight purple tint pervading the whole. Very beau- tiful varieties are occasionally seen; a nest of six from Sutherland, in the Wolley Collection, are thickly blotched with crimson-red on a white ground, while another is of a cream-colour, partially blotched with purplish-red and violet. They measure from 1/6 to T4S by 1/24 to 115 in. The Merlin measures from ten to twelve inches in length, according to the sex. An old male has the beak bluish horn- colour, palest at the base, darkest towards the tip; the cere yellow, the hides dark brown; the top of the head blue- MERLIN. 77 grey, with dark lines passing backward ; the cheeks, and thence round the back of the neck, pale reddish-brown, also marked with dark streaks, forming a collar ; the whole of the back and wing-coverts fine blue-grey, the shaft of each feather forming a dark median line ; primaries pitch-black ; upper surface of the tail-feathers bluish-grey over two-thirds of their length, with slight indications of three dark bands, the distal third nearly uniform black, the tips of all the feathers white ; the chin and throat white ; breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, rufous, with brown median patches, and darker brown streaks ; under surface of the tail-feathers barred with two shades of grey, a broad dark terminal band, and white tips ; legs and toes yellow ; claws black. In the female, the top of the head, back, wing-coverts, and secondaries are dark liver-brown, the shaft of each feather darker, the edged tipped with red ; the tail-feathers brown, with five narrow transverse bars of wood-brown ; under surface of the body pale brownish-white, with darker brown longitudinal patches ; the beak, cere, eyes, legs, toes, and claws as in the male. Young males resemble the females ; and in birds of the year, the wings do not reach so far towards the end of the tail as in those that are adult. jjg 78 ACOIPITRES. FALCON ID .E. FALCONIDJS. Falco tinnunculus, Linnaeus *. THE KESTREL, OR WINDHOVER. Falco tinnunculus. The Kestrel is the must common species of the British Falconidce, and from its peculiar habits, which place it very often in view, it is also, as might be expected, the best known. It is handsome in shape, attractive in colour, and graceful in its motions in the air; though from its mode of * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. \>. 127 (1766). KESTEEL. 79 searching for its food, and the shortness of its wings com- pared with the other small species already figured, it departs from the characters of the true Falcons. It is best known, and that too at any moderate distance, by its habits of sus- taining itself in the air in the same place by means of a short but rapid motion of the wings, while its powerful eyes search the surface beneath for prey. It has acquired the name of Windhover from its habit of remaining with out- spread tail suspended in the air, the head on these occasions always pointing to windward ; and it is also called Stonegall, or Stannell. By many authorities the Kestrel has been separated from the genus Falco, and held to be the type of the genus Tinnunculus, in which case the present species is called Tinnunculus alaudarius. Mice form the principal part of the food of the Kestrel ; and it appears to obtain them by dropping suddenly upon them. Montagu says that he never found any feathers in the stomach of this species; but it is certain that it does occasionally kill and devour small birds, and at times the young of larger ones. The remains of frogs, coleopterous insects, their larvae, and earth-worms have been found in their stomachs ; and Selby, on the authority of an eye-witness, has recorded the fact of the Kestrel hawking cockchafers late in the evening. The observer watched the bird through a glass, and "saw him dart through a swarm of the insects, seize one in each claw, and eat them while flying. He returned to the charge again and again. I ascertained it beyond a doubt, as I afterwards shot him." Among the many interesting communications on birds which have appeared from the pen of Waterton, and from his own observations, is one on the habits of the Windhover, in which the value of the mouse-destroying propensities of this friend to the farmer is clearly pointed out. In spring the Kestrel frequently takes possession of the nest of a Grow or a Magpie, in which to deposit its eggs. Sometimes these birds build in high rocks, or on old towers, in ruined buildings, and, though rarely, in the trunk of a hollow tree, laying four or five eggs, mottled all over with 80 FALCONID.E. dark brownish-red or orange, and sometimes with blotches of ilic same upon a pale reddish or white ground. They vary in size more than those of the Merlin, which they otherwise much resemble, and measure from 1/42 to 1*67 by P36 to 1'2 in. The young are hatched about the end of April or beginning of May, and are clothed with a yellowish-white down. The Kestrel is too common in these islands to render necessary an enumeration of the counties in which it breeds. In the south, and perhaps in other parts of England, its numbers receive an increase in autumn, supplied doubtless from the north, and there are districts in which it is either wholly unknown or but seldom seen in winter, so that in Britain it partially migrates, while in many other countries it does so unmistakably. It is a bird of very wide distri- bution, and as Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser remark, "ranges over the entire Pakearctie Eegion, being found throughout Europe and Siberia, visiting India in the winter, and also migrating, but apparently in more limited numbers, to Africa." It must be said, however, that the Kestrel does not occur in Iceland, and has only once, according to Heir H. C. Midler, been taken in the Fseroes. Its precise northern limit in Europe is perhaps doubtful; but, though it was found breeding near Tromso in Norway by Professor Lilljeborg, and by Wolley in Finland, at about G8 X. lat., there seems to be no proof of its reaching, as has been stated, the North Cape, and it was never observed in East Finmark by Pastor Sommerfelt during his nine years' resi- dence. With regard to its range in Siberia, Herr Eadde says that he found it common only as far as Omsk, beyond which it was very seldom seen. Still Kestrels occur much further to the eastward, though whether they are identical with the true Falco tinnunculus, or belong to tin 1 darker form, which, from its inhabiting Japan, has been separated as a variety under the name of japonicus, remains uncertain. In China, it would seem, from Mr. Swinhoe's researches, that both forms occur. Some examples from Burmah, India, and Ceylon, in Lord Walden's collection, are, according to KESTEEL. 81 the painstaking authors of the 'Birds of Europe,' before quoted, indistinguishable from those killed in Britain, while others again are much paler in colour. Eeturning towards the west, Eversmann observed it in Bokhara, and, though not noticed by de Filippi in Persia, it is said by Menetries to extend to the frontiers of that country, while it is common in the Caucasus, occurring even at the height of six thousand feet. In Palestine, too, it is abundant, breeding, according to Canon Tristram, in very many localities, and generally some twenty to thirty in the same spot. In the northern part of East Africa it is resident, but vast flocks arrive in autumn and pass to the southward to Arabia, Abyssinia, and the Soudan, returning again when winter is past. Mr. G-urney received a specimen said to have come from the Seychelles, but it is certainly not a common bird in those islands, which possess a species peculiar to themselves, the Falco or Tinnunculus gracilis. Dr. von Heuglin observes, that the Kestrels which remain in North-east Africa are generally more brightly coloured than European examples, with larger and blacker spots, and that the head of the hen is darker reddish-grey, and the band on the tail broader ; and Professor Sundevall makes much the same remark. The most southern limit of the common Kestrel would seem to be the latitude of the Cape of G-ood Hope, whence a young male, caught on board ship, is contained in the Leyden Museum. Anclersson sent a single example from Damaraland ; Mr Sharpe has re- ceived it from the Fantee-country, in West Africa; and it also occurs in Senegambia. In the Cape Verde Islands and the Canaries it is common and resident, as it also is in the Azores and Madeira ; but examples from the last locality are remarkable for their dark colour. It is also abundant in Morocco and Algeria, and, according to the late Mr. Cham- bers-Hodgetts, in Tripoli. About a dozen other species of Kestrel are known, some of which have a curiously restricted range, as that of the Seychelles, before mentioned ; that of Mauritius, Falco punc- tatus ; and that of Cuba, F. sparvcrioides ; while others have a wider distribution, and the so-called "American Sparrow- VOL. i. M 82 FALCONID.E. Hawk," F. sparverius, rivals F. tinnunculus in its range, extending over nearly the whole of the New World; and, though examples vary exceedingly in colour, it has hitherto defied the power of ornithologists satisfactorily to divide it even into local races. One species, the Lesser Kestrel and Faho cenchris of authors — a common bird in Southern Europe — is said to have been killed in England, and has been admitted by the IJev. Francis Orpen Morris to a place in the last edition of his 'British Birds,' but on what appears to have been incomplete evidence. The whole length of the Kestrel is from thirteen to fifteen inches, depending on the sex. The male, the upper figure in the illustration, has the beak blue, pale towards the base ; the cere and orbits yellow, the irides dark brown; the top of the head, cheeks, and nape of the neck, ash-grey, with dusky longitudinal streaks; the back, tertials, and wing- coverts, reddish fawn-colour, with small black triangular spots dispersed over them, one occupying the point of each feather; the primaries and secondaries blackish-grey, with lighter-coloured edges ; the tail-feathers ash-grey, with a broad black band near the end, and a white tip; the breast and belly pale rufous fawn-colour, with dark longitudinal streaks on the former, and dark spots on the latter ; the thighs and under tail-coverts rufous fawn-colour, without spots; the tail beneath greyish- white, with imperfect dark transverse bars; the legs and toes yellow; the claws black. In the female, the top of the head is reddish fawn-colour, striped darker longitudinally; the whole of the upper surface reddish-brown, barred transversely with bluish-black; pri- maries darker than in the male; the whole under surface of the body of a paler ferruginous colour, but streaked on the breast and spotted lower down, as in the male; under surface of the tail more uniform in colour and less distinctly barred than in the male. Young males are like the female till after their first winter, but then begin to exhibit the adult plumage, the head being the last part to change. GOS-HAWK. ACCIP1TRES. 83 FALCOXIDjE. Astur palumbapjus (Linnaeus *). THE GOS-HAWK. Astur palumbarius. Astur, Lacej)ede-f. — Bill short, bending from the base; cutting edge of the upper mandible produced, forming a festoon. Nostrils oval. Wings short, reaching only to the middle of the tail-teathers, the fourth quill-feather the longest. Legs stout, the tarsi covered in front with broad scales. Toes of moderate length, the middle toe somewhat the longest, the lateral toes nearly equal, but the inner claws considerably larger than the outer. Inferior in powers to the Falcons, though equal in size to the largest of them, the Gos-Hawk or Goose-Hawk is yet the * Falco palumbarius, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766). t Me'moires de l'Institut, iii. p. 506 (1800-1801). 84 FALCOXID.E. best of the short-winged Hawks ; but its habits, as well as its mode of flying at its game, are very different: it does not stoop to its prey, like most of the Falcons, but glides along in a line after it, and takes it by a mode which, in the lan- guage of falconry, is called raking. The Gos-Hawk is in some esteem among falconers, being flown at Hares, Babbits, Pheasants and Partridges. It flies low and fast for a short distance, may be used in an enclosed country, and will even dash through woods after its prey; but if it does not catch the object, it soon gives up the pursuit, and perching on a bough, waits till some new game presents itself, or until the quarry, being pressed by hunger, is induced to move ; and as the Hawk is capable of greater abstinence, it generally succeeds in taking it. Montagu was informed by Colonel Thornton that at Thorn ville Royal, in Yorkshire, he flew a Gos-Hawk at a Pheasant ; but it got into cover, and he lost the Hawk : at ten o'clock next morning the falconer found her, and just as he had lifted her, the Pheasant ran and rose. The Gos-Hawk is a rare species in England at the present day, and those that are used for hawking are obtained from the continent ; yet examples have been taken of late years in several counties. Mr Pemberton Bartlett, in ' The Zool- ogist' for 1844 (p. 618), notices one recently killed in Kent, and in the same magazine for 1846 (p. 1496) mention is made by Mr George Horn, of Egham, of one caught at the beginning of that year. In Suffolk the capture of five ex- amples, and in Norfolk of eleven, has been recorded, mostly within the last few years. One is also said by Mr. Sterland, in his 'Birds of Sherwood Forest,' to have been taken in 1848 at Rufford in Nottinghamshire. In Northumberland or the adjacent counties seven examples have been killed^ according to various writers. Iil Scotland at least half-a- dozen have lately occurred from Roxburghshire to the Shet- lands, the particulars of which will be found in Mr. Robert Gray's work, while that gentleman, on the testimony of Mr. Tottenham Lee, has reason to believe that it has even recently bred in Kirkcudbrightshire, as it formerly, almost without GOS-HAWK. 85 doubt, did in Forfarshire, Stirling, Moray and Sutherland. The same author also quotes evidence from the 'Liber de Melros,' which seems to shew that in the thirteenth century it regularly bred on the Border. Colonel Thornton, when in Scotland, had a nestling sent to him from the forest of Eothiemurcus, and saw some eyries both there and in Glen- more. Hence it is not unreasonable to suppose that, in the days when large forests of Scotch-firs flourished natur- ally in that kingdom, it inhabited the districts so occupied ; still there can be no doubt that considerable confusion has arisen from the fact that in several places its common name has been and yet is applied to the Peregrine Falcon, and hence some caution must be used in accepting all the testi- mony as to its former abundance in this country. The Falcon Gentil of Pennant, as has already been said (p. 56), is the present species, which under that name he describes and twice figures, mistaking the second for the first plumage and the converse. In Ireland it seems to have occurred very seldom. Thompson was unable to include it with certainty as a bird of that island, but Mr. Watters records the occurrence of a male in the county Longford in 1846, and lately one was observed in county Wicklow by Mr. A. Basil Brooke (Zool. s.s. p. 2283). On the continent of Europe the Gos-Hawk is very generally distributed, being most plentiful in Germany. It is far from uncommon in Lapland, where it breeds as far north as the trees attain any size, and a representation of its nest is given in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana.' It inhabits nearly the whole of the Eussian Empire, reaching to Kamtchatka : many indi- viduals from those far eastern regions, as also, to some extent, those from Southern Eussia, being paler in colour and some almost perfectly white, these last being highly valued for Falconry. In China Mr. Swinhoe saw it used for hawking near Pekin. It inhabits and breeds in the Himalayas, and occurs in winter on the plains of the Punjaub. De Filippi noticed it in Persia. In Palestine it seems to be rare, and not found south of the Lebanon. It is recorded from Egypt by Savigny and Eiippell, as well as by Captain Shelley, but 86 FALCONID.E. there it seems to be scarce. In Algeria it is only of acci- dental appearance. In Portugal it is pretty common and the same is the case with it in parts of Spain. In many districts of France it breeds annually, but its numbers also receive an addition in autumn. In Italy it is rare, and still more so in Sicily, though, according to Malherbe, it breeds there. In Sardinia it is an autumnal visitant. It occurs in the Cyclades in winter, but on the mainland of Greece and in Turkey it is resident and not rare. Within the limits thus traced it is a very well-known species, preying on almost every kind of beast or bird that it can catch — Hares, Babbits, Squirrels, Wild Bucks, Grouse, Pigeons and domestic poultry. The late Mr Hoy, who frequently visited Germany, supplied Mr Hewitson with the information that the Gos-Hawk " builds its own nest, and, if undisturbed in its possession, will fre- quently occupy it for several years, making the necessary re- pairs. It is placed in some high tree on the outskirts of the forest, and is rarely found in the interior of the woodland, ex- cept in those parts which are cleared and free from timber." A nest in Norwegian Lapland, to which Wolley climbed, was at a good height in a large Scotch-fir, and so thick that when he stood on the branch on which its lower part rested, the top was some inches above his head : its building had probably been the work of years. The eggs of the Gos-Hawk are three or four in number, white and most commonly unspotted, but not unfrequently varied by a few vermiform markings of a pale olive tint, and occasionally by a few specks of dark red- dish-brown. They measure from 2*48 to 212 by 1*88 to 1*75 in. A bird for many years in Mr. Gurney's possession, several times laid eggs, which she shewed an inclination to brood. A full-grown female measures from twenty-two to twenty- four inches in length ; — the males about nineteen inches ; but when adult, the plumage is nearly similar. The beak is bluish horn-colour; the cere yellow, and irides orange; the top of the head, the whole of the back, upper surface of the wings and tail, dark greyish-brown, — in females the colour inclines to clove-brown ; the upper surface of the tail barred GOS-HAWK. 87 with darker brown ; a band passing over the lores, eyes, cheeks and ear-coverts, the nape of the neck, throat, breast, belly and thighs, nearly white, with spots, transverse bars and undulating lines of dull black ; under tail-coverts white ; lores, cheeks and ear-coverts greyish-brown, forming an elon- gated dark patch on the side of the head ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. The young birds have the beak, cere and eyes nearly similar to those of the adults; the top of the head, nape and ear-coverts, ferruginous-white, each feather darker in the middle; back, wings and upper tail-coverts, brown, margined with buff; upper surface of the tail with five bands of dark brown and four bands of lighter brown, the ends of all the feathers white ; primaries dark brown, barred with two shades of brown on the inner webs ; the chin, throat, breast and belly, greyish-white, each feather with a median elongated patch of dark brown ; thighs and under tail-coverts with a dark brown longitudinal streak, instead i»f a broad patch; under surface of the wings greyish-white, with transverse dusky bars ; under surface of the tail greyish- white, with five darker greyish-brown transverse bars ; legs and toes yellow-brown ; the claws black. Bewick, in his well-known work, having figured an adult Gros-Hawk, a young bird was chosen for the illustration here given.* * In America our Gos-Hawk is represented by an allied yet distinct species — the Astur atricajullus, recognizable in its adult plumage by its darker head and the much closer barring of its lower surface. Three examples of this bird, two of which were adult females, have been killed in the British Islands. The first, recorded by Mr. Robert Gray in 'The Ibis' for 1870 (p. 292), on Shechallion in Perthshire in 1869, the second, also recorded in the same volume (p. 538), by Sir Victor Brooke, on the Galtee mountains in Tipperary in 1870, and the third, obtained at Parsonstown in the King's County in 1870, by Mr. Basil Brooke (Zool. s.s. p. 2524). ss ACCIPITRES. FALCON I DJ-' FALCONlh.i: mm Accipitee nisus ( Linnaeus *). THE SPAE BOW-HAWK. Aecipite r nisus. Accipiter, Iliissnnf. — Heak bending from the base, short, compressed, supe- rior ridge rounded and narrow, cutting margin of the upper mandible with a distinct festoon. Nostrils oval. Wings short ; the fourth and fifth quill-feathers nearly equal in length, and the longest. Legs long, slender, and smooth. Toes long and slender, the middle toe particularly, the claws curved and sharp. The Sparkow-Hawk is another short-winged Hawk, but of comparatively small size, in its habits very similar to the bird last described, and has been aptly termed a Gos-Hawk in miniature. In most wooded districts the Sparrow-Hawk is a common and well-known species; bold, active, vigilant. * Falco nisus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766). f Omithologie, i. p. 310 (1760). SPAKKOW-HAWK. 89 and destructive, a dangerous enemy to small quadrupeds and young birds, upon which it subsists, and is so daring during the season in which its own nestlings require to be provided with food, as frequently to venture among the out-buildings of the farmhouse, where it has been observed to rapidly skim over the poultry-yard, snatch up a chick, and get off with it in an instant. The female Sparrow-Hawk is, indeed, the only bird-of-prey which the game-preserver nowadays need fear. In reference to the capabilities of this species for hawking, Sebright says that he once took a Partridge with a Sparrow- Hawk of his own breaking, ten days after it had been taken wild from a wood. In England it is commonly used for taking Land-Kails, Partridges, Blackbirds, Thrushes and other small birds, but in India it is trained to quarry of much swifter flight, such as the Courser and Sand-Grouse. The Sparrow - Hawk generally builds its own nest, but often takes possession of that of some other bird, frequently a Crow's, in which the hen lays four or five eggs, which are usually of great beauty, being boldly blotched with deep brownish-crimson on a white or pale bluish-white ground, the markings being often massed together and leaving a large part of the shell uncoloured, though examples are not rare which are more uniformly spotted. Occasionally the colouring is collected at one of the ends, and sometimes in the form of a zone, while again it is found diffused over the whole surface. The eggs measure from 1*72 to 1'42 by 1'36 to 1'17 in. The young are covered with a delicate and pure white down, and are abundantly supplied with food. Selby mentions having found in a nest containing five young Sparrow-Hawks, a Lapwing, two Blackbirds, a Thrush and two Green Linnets, recently killed, and partly divested of their feathers. The Sparrow-Hawk is common throughout the whole of Great Britain, and the enclosed and wooded parts of Ireland. It also inhabits every country of the European continent, from the most northern province of Norway southward. It extends across Asia to Japan, and in China occurs at least VOL. i. N 90 FALCONID.K as far south as Canton. It visits most parts of India during the cold weather, and is believed to breed in the Himalayas. In Western Asia it penetrates to Arabia, and in Eastern Africa to Kordufan. It breeds, according to Loche, in Algeria, and Dr. Bolle says the same of it in the Canaries. In Germany, Switzerland, and some districts of France, a local race or species, the Accipitcr major of some authors, is said to occur; differing from A. nisus in its larger size, in the absence of the slate-colour above and the rust-colour beneath, and in the broader, darker and more numerous bands of the tail. M. G-erbe, in his revised edition of the ' Ornithologie Europeenne ' of the late Dr. Degland, enters at some length upon these alleged differences, but -the opinion of most ornithologists, and probably the correct one, is that the A. 'major is not a good species, or oven a distinct race, [n the south of Eussia, the Levant, and most likely other adjoining countries, there does, however, exist a second species of Sparrow-Hawk, known under various names, of which A. brevipcs (Severzow) seems to be the correct one. This differs notably from the Common Sparrow-Hawk in its shorter toes. It is the Faho gurneyi of Dr. Bree's ' Birds of Europe' (iv. p. 185). The adult male Sparrow-Hawk measures about twelve inches in length; the beak blue, lightest at the base; the cere greenish-yellow, the hides orange ; the upper surface generally, with the exception of a small white spot on the nape, of a dark bluish slate-colour; tail greyish-brown, with from three to five dark transverse bands ; the chin, cheeks, throat, breast, belly, thighs and under tail-coverts, rufous, with numerous transverse bars of darker rufous-brown; legs and toes yellow; the claws black. The female is generally three inches longer than, the male; the beak, bluish horn-colour; cere yellowish, the hides orange ; the top of the head, upper part of the neck, except the white spot on the nape, back, wing- and tail- coverts, brown, many of the feathers white at the base; primaries and tail light brown, with dark transverse bars ; under surface of the neck, body, wine-coverts and thighs, SPARROW-HAWK. 91 greyish-white, barred transversely with brown ; under surface of the wing- and tail-quills of the same colour, but the light and dark bars much broader ; the first six primaries emar- ginated; the first the shortest, the fourth and fifth equal and the longest ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. The young male resembles the female; but the brown feathers of the upper parts are edged with reddish-brown ; the tail reddish-brown, particularly towards the base, with dark transverse bands as in the adult. Some females, supposed to be very old, greatly resemble the adult males, and white varieties have been several times met with. 92 ACGIPITBES. FALCONID.K. FALCON I DAI. Milvus ictinus (Savigny*). THE KITE, OE GLEAD. Milvus vulgaris^. Milvus, LacepZdet- — Beak straight at the base, curved from the cere to the point, cutting margin with a slight, fpstoon. Nostrils oval, oblique. Wings long; the third or fourth quill the longest. Tail long, and generally forked. Legs short. Toes short and strong, the outer toe united at its base to the middle toe. hut slightly reversible. Claws moderately long and curved. The red Kite, once a familiar bird in this island, but now one of the rarest, is readily distinguished among the British Falconidce, even when at a distance on the wing, by its long and forked tail, and its graceful and gliding flight, • Sysfeme des < >iseaus de l'Egypte et de la Syrie, p. 28 (1810). f Fleming, British Animals, p. 51 (1828). f .Meinour- de 1'Institut, iii. p. 506 (1800-1801). KITE. 93 which has given it, according to the best authorities, the name, Glead. The word so rendered, however, in our version of the Bible is of more general application in Canon Tristram's opinion, and Ayah, translated Vulture, more properly means Kite. Occasionally this species sails in circles, with its rudder-like tail by its inclination governing the curve ; then stops, and remains stationary for a time, the tail expanded widely. In its mode of taking its prey the Kite is distin- guished from Falcons and Hawks generally, by seizing it upon the ground. The nature of the food also makes this habit evident; twenty-two moles have been found in the nest of a Kite, besides frogs and unfledged birds : it preys also on leverets, rabbits, snakes, and fish, but where it is abundant its food is chiefly offal, thus illustrating Sir T. Browne's remark that it was scarce near Norwich, " because of the plenty of Eavens." Old traditions shew that it fre- quently visited the poultry-yard, but it was not remarkable for its courage, and hens have been known by their vocifera- tions and show of resistance to protect their chickens from the threatened attack, and even to drive away the unwel- come intruder. In Hertfordshire and Essex the Kite was called the Put- tock, and the Crotchet-tailed Puddock ; but this name, as well as that by which it is now commonly called, was, and is, often used indiscriminately in some localities for the Buzzards and Harriers as well. In former days the Kite, from the excellent sport it shewed when pursued by Falcons, was esteemed a bird especially adapted to the gratification of Eoyalty, and by many naturalists it is still called Milvus regalis, the epithet being originally bestowed upon it from this circumstance. The Falcons which cost Sir Thomas Monson so large a sum of» money, as previously mentioned (p. 51), were expressly trained for this flight, hitherto unknown in England, and the only ones he could ever get to perform it. That gentle- man was Master Falconer to James I., and, says the gossiping chronicler, Sir Antony Weldon, " in truth such a one, as no Prince in Christendome had." The birds killed nine Kites 94 FALCONID.-E. without missing one, but when the King was taken out to see their prowess at Koyston, the quarry mounted to such a height, " as all the field lost sight of Kite and Hawke and all, and neither Kite nor Hawke were either seen or heard of to this present." About a hundred years ago, the then Lord Orford pursued the same sport at Alconbury Hill in Huntingdonshire, and later still near Eriswell in Suffolk. In proof of the docility of this species, Thompson relates that the Kite itself, on the other hand, has been reclaimed and trained to take a quarry, though of a humble kind. Mr. Pi, Langtry procured from the nest a pair which became tame and familiar, and notwithstanding that they were allowed their liberty every morning, when they soared to a great height, they always returned to the lure or fist on being called, and while on the wing, rats let out of a cage- trap were expertly caught by them. This bird has now become exceedingly rare in England; extensive forests or well-wooded districts afforded it the only chance of escape from the war of extermination carried on by those who wished to preserve their poultry or game. Formerly it abounded throughout the country, and even in London, where it seems there was a regulation for its pro- tection, so as to have been an object of astonishment to foreigners. Thus the Bohemian Schaschek who visited England about 1461, after mentioning London Bridge in his journal,* remarks that he had nowhere seen so great a number of Kites as there, and the statement is confirmed by Belon, who says that they were scarcely more numerous in Cairo than in London, where they remained all the year, feeding on the garbage of the streets and even of the Thames itself. f The nest, formed of sticks mixed with a variety of other * Bibliothek des Iiterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, vii. p. 40 (1844). f Knapp, in the 'Journal of a Naturalist' (p. 230), mentions the singular capture of some Kites which were roosting on tall trees in winter: — "a fog came on during the night, which froze early in the morning, and fastened the feet of the poor kites so firmly to the boughs that some adventurous youths brought down, I think, fifteen of them so secured." Mr. Fuller-Maitland has kindly informed the Editor that when a boy he heard of the same or a similar KITE. 95 substances — such as bones, bits of old shoes, and fragments of wasps' nests, but lined with softer materials, in which rags * seem always to have a place, is usually built in the forked branch of a large tree, but sometimes on a ledge of rock. From three to four eggs are laid in April or May. These are of a dirty white, more or less marked with spots and blotches of light reddish-brown or brownish-yellow, under which are often seen patches of pale lilac. They are commonly of a short oval form, and measure from 243 to 2"05 by T82 to 1/64 in. The nest is sometimes vigorously defended by the owners, and a boy has been known to be severely wounded in attempting to take the eggs. In the southern counties of England there seems to be no place now wherein the Kite habitually breeds. There were nests in Lincolnshire until the year 1857, but owing in a great measure to the cutting down of the woods it has probably been driven from that locality. In ' The Zoologist ' for 1871 (p. 2519), Mr. Newman mentions that two nests were found in Eadnorshire in 1870, so that it is to be hoped that the species may still linger in Wales until happier times await it. When the first edition of this work was published, the woods near Alconbury Hill were, still the breeding-places of the Kite, but it was extirpated there about the year 1844, or soon after. In Scotland, where it was formerly very common, it is now, according to Mr. Eobert Gray, but rarely seen even in those localities in the west of that kingdom where, even as late as 1858, it remained to breed, and it does so now probably in three counties only — -Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness. It occa- sionally occurs in the Hebrides, but in Ireland, according to Thompson, it has only been known as *a very rare visitant, and Mr. Watters omits all mention of it. capture from his father's gamekeeper, a very old man. It seems probable, however, that it was rather the flight-feathers of the birds which were frozen together, and so hindered the birds from extending their wings, than that their feet were frozen to the boughs, but the story is proof of the abundance of the Kite. * Thus justifying the saying Shakespear puts into the mouth of Autolycus : " When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen." — Winter s Talc, Act iv. Sc. 2. 06 falcoxiiu-:. The Kite is not uncommon in most parts of Europe, from the southern districts of Norway to the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. In Sweden, though one of the earliest birds to arrive in spring, it is said by Herr Wallengren not to breed north of Lit. 01 , and it is not known with certainty to occur in Finland. Pallas says that it is common in the more southern provinces of Russia, and winters on the Lower Volga, but Professor Sundevall declares that this statement is a mistake, and that it does not occur so far to the east as, for instance, the Government of Kharkof, north of the Sea of Azof. In Palestine and Lower Egypt it is abundant in winter, and in the former a few remain to breed. It is also common in Algeria, both in the Dayats of the Sahara, and among the rocks of the Atlas, and according to Dr. Bolle is resident and abundant in the Canaries. The specimen figured measured twenty-six inches in length. Wing, from the anterior bend to the end of the longest quill, nineteen inches ; the longest tail-feather fifteen inches. Its beak is horn-colour, cere and hides yellow ; the feathers of the head and neck greyish-white, streaked along the shaft with ash-brown : those of the back and wing-coverts dark brown in the middle, broadly edged with rufous; the inner web of some of the tertials edged with white; the primaries nearly black; upper tail-coverts rufous; tail red- dish-brown and deeply forked, the inner webs barred with dark brown: the outer feathers the darkest; the chin and throat greyish-white, streaked with dusky; the breast, belly and thighs, rufous-brown, each feather with a median streak of dark brown ; the wings beneath, rufous near the body, with dark brown feathers edged with red-brown on the outer part ; under tail-coverts rufous-white; the tail beneath greyish- white, with dark bars; the tarsi and toes yellow; the claws black. The females are rather larger than the males, and have the head greyer, with the body beneath more rufous. BLA.CK KITE .ICCIPITRKS Milvus migkans (Boddaert *). THE BLACK KITE. The Black Kite is supposed by some ornithologists to be one of those species which are gradually extending their geographical range, and being also a rather widely distri- buted European bird, little excuse seems to be needed for including it in this work, though as yet only a single instance of its occurrence in the United Kingdom is known with cer- tainty. This instance was recorded by Mr. John Hancock in 'The Ibis' for 1867 (p. 253), as follows:— "A fine mature male example of the Black Kite, Milvus migrans (Bodd. 1783) (Fako ater, G-mel. 1788), came into my possession in a fresh state on the 11th of May, 1866. * Falco migrans, Boddaert, Table des Planches Enlumine'ez, p. 28, no. 472 (1783). VOL. I. 98 l'ALCONIIXK. It was taken in a trap by Mr. F. Fulger, Liu* Duke of Northumberland's game-keeper, a few days before, in tin' Red Deer Park at Alnwick. This is, I believe, the first time that this fine rapacious bird has occurred in Britain.* The plumage was in very good condition, except on the lower part of the body (where it had sustained some injury from the trap), and agrees with that of mature specimens in my collection, which 1 received from the Continent some years ago. It was proved by dissection to be a male." M. Jules Verreaux has informed Mr. G-urney that the Black' Kite in France appears to be now more abundant than formerly, and apparently in proportion as the Red Kite is U'rowiicj,- rarer. Dr. Bruch also, in the 'Journal fur Orni- thologie' for 1854 (p. 278), states that in the neighbourhood of Mayence, this species becomes commoner year by year. In many parts of the continent, no doubt, the Black Kite, like other birds which suffer much persecution during' the breeding-season, is becoming scarcer; but the evidence of two ornithologists, so well-informed as those just named, as to its increase in certain localities, leads naturally to the supposition mentioned in the first sentence of this article. Throughout nearly the whole of its wide range, the Black Kite is a migratory bird, passing northward in spring, and returning southward in autumn, so as fully to justify the earliest specific name, the bestowal of which upon it can be recognized — that <^ migrans, by Boddaert, though the appellation of nigcr, which it received from Brisson, con- tinues to be used by many writers. The name of ater, * It must be observed, however, that Sibbald, in his 'Scotia Illustrata' (part iii. p. 15), published in 1084, includes among the animals of Scotland "Milvus niger, a black Gled. An Lanius?'"; and Don, in his Account of the. Plants and Animals of Forfarshire, published, in 1813, as an Appendix to Headrick's 'General View of the Agriculture of the County of Angus,' inserts in his li>t of birds (p. 3'J), between the names of Falco milvus and F. buteo, "Falcoater; black eagle: on heaths and low hills.'' It is hardly probable that any light could now be thrown upon the species intended by the first of these writers; but the localities given by the second, as those frequented by the bird he meant, almost preclude the possibility of its being the Falco ate?' of Gmelin — the real Black Kite of authors, which, as will presently appear, is rather a woodland species ; and it seems not altogether unlikely that a Marsh-Harrier might have misled Don. BLACK KITE. 99 subsequently given b} r J. F. Gmelin, or that of cetolius by Savigny — the last equally belonging to an allied species, is also frequently applied to this bird. Like the preceding species, the Black Kite is naturally an inhabitant of forests or woodland tracts, and especially such as are interspersed with lakes and rivers, whence it procures the fishes and frogs which form its chief living food, though it also preys upon insects, young birds, and the smaller mammals. It will besides eat offal as readily as the Eed Kite, and to obtain it shews remarkable fearlessness of man, haunting encampments and entering towns ; but it possesses no high courage, and submits to be robbed of its booty by Crows or Daws. Dr. Finseh states that on the Balkan he several times saw Black Kites and Eavens engaged in devouring dead horses, and in many of the countries where the species abounds it is regarded as a most useful scavenger. M. Alphonse de la Fontaine, in his 'Faune de Luxembourg,' describes the Black Kite as repairing daily at the same hour to the waters where it seeks its food. Arrived there it de- scends near the surface, following all the windings of the river's course with a slow flight, and, though never stopping long at one place, its keen eye detects the least movement of the fishes beneath. Watching the moment when one leaves the deeper parts for a shallow, or to gam a rapid, it plunges down and seizes the fish with its talons. On emerging it shakes the water from its feathers, and proceeds to eat the prey at a distance. This is its habit day after day without varying the direction of its flight, except when it has young and, having to perform more journeys to provide their food, it lessens the extent of its beat. When the rivers are flooded, and the bird is unable to fish in this manner, it betakes itself to other quarry, and will at times in its boldness snatch away poultry even from the interior of the farms. The Black Kite has its nest in a tall tree, or selects the roots of a shrub growing out of a rock — the first being its usual practice in Europe, and the last that which it prefers in Africa. In the Algerian Atlas, according to Mr Salvin, it builds a structure composed principally of sticks, with a lining 100 FALCOXID.E. of rags, woo] and other soft materials, while on the surrounding branches arc fantastically hung old pieces of Arab clothing of various colours. In southern Spain, according to Mr. Howard Saunders, it exhibits' sociable qualities, and a comparatively small patch of wood will contain ten nests or more, while when building apart it has always an accompanying colony n( Sparrows. Messrs. Elwes and Buckley state that two pairs of Black Kites had made their nests on a high plane-tree in one of the busiest streets of Pera, and seemed quite insensible to the noise which was going on all day around them. The same observers also remark that the nest of this species is very small. The eggs are two in number, and much re- semble those of the Eed Kite already described. Mr. Salvin and ( 'anon Tristram state that examples procured by them are more distinctly and deeply marked, but it seems doubtful whether they ever attain the varied and beautiful tints ex- hibited by some northern and especially British specimens belonging to that species. They measure from 2"17 to 1'94 by 1"75 to 1*53 in., and are hatched in April or May. The geographical distribution of the Black Kite is exten- sive. Though not found in Norway, Sweden, or Finland, in Russia it reaches as far to the north as Archangel and thence across Siberia, becoming rarer to the eastward and hardly observed, according to Pallas, beyond the Lena. Some of the modern Russian naturalists consider the Mihnis mclanotis of Eastern Siberia, Japan and China to be identical with M. migrans, and extend the limits of the latter accordingly, but the former is regarded by Mr. G-urney and other high authorities as quite distinct, being larger and sometimes nearly as rufous as M. ictinus. To the south-east and south two other species, which have much the same appearance, represent M. migrans; these are M. nfjinix, which ranges from Chusan to Australia, besides occurring in India, and M. govindrt, the common "Pariah Kite" of that country, in which the true Black Kite is not found, though a specimen from Afghanistan in the East India Museum is, according to Mr. (lurnev, referable to M. migroMS. This last is said, by Pallas, to wilder in Persia, BLACK KITE. 101 where De FHippi also found it. It is very common in the Caucasus, and Messrs. Dickson and Eoss obtained it at Erze- room. In Palestine, according to Canon Tristram, it arrives about the beginning of March in immense numbers, and scatters itself over the whole country. There is much dis- crepancy in the accounts of recent travellers as to its occur- rence in Egypt, some stating that it is very abundant there, and some avowing that they never met with it, and that another of its near allies, Milvus cegyptius (easily recognized, when adult, by its pale yellow beak), must have been mistaken for it. The explanation of the difficulty probably lies in the fact that while M. cegyptius is a resident in Egypt, M. migrans is a bird of passage only, and may not always stop for the convenience of other travellers on its way down or up the Nile valley. Drs. von Heuglin and A. E. Brehm include it as a bird of Eastern Kordofan and Abyssinia, and Mr. Blanford found it to be ex- tremely common both in the highlands and lowlands of the country last named. Mr. Chapman sent specimens procured on the Zambesi to Mr. Layard, and Mr - Edward Newton shot a bird, pronounced by Mr. G-urney to be of this species, in Madagascar. Mr. Layard also records an example killed at Colesberg in the Cape Colony, and Andersson met with it in Damaraland, where it arrives in autumn in large numbers, and remains throughout the breeding-season. In West Africa it has been obtained at Bissao and on the Niger. It occurs in Morocco and is very common in Algeria, breeding in the Atlas, but not occurring to the south of that range of moun- tains, its place being taken by M. cegyptius. Eeturning to Europe, it is said to be met with occasionally in Portugal, and in Spain, as before noticed, it breeds. It breeds also in several parts of France, and Baron de Selys-Longchamps says, on the authority of M. de Meezemaeker, that it has been observed at Bergues, which is only a few miles from the English Channel. It does not seem to have occurred in Belgium, but the Leyden Museum contains a specimen killed in Holland. In Denmark it is found only in the south, and in northern Germany it appears to be rare ; but more to the south and eastward it breeds not uncommonly in some localities. 102 FALOOXIP.H. An adult male from the Volga, killed in April, measures about twenty-two inches in length; the wing from the an- terior bend to the end of the longest quill (the third) about seventeen inches; the tail ten inches and a half. The beak is black, the lower mandible yellowish at the base; the cere and lips orange. Iris pale greyish-yellow, surrounded by a black line. The head, throat and neck are of a dirty white, each feather with a longitudinal streak of dark brown, which is very narrow on the front feathers, but increases in breadth further backwards, the appearance of the whole at a little dis- tance being grey. Back and upper wing-coverts of a deep hair-brown, with a slight purplish metallic gloss : the feathers darker near the shaft and lighter at the edges, the greater wing-coverts especially so. The quills and particularly the primaries ami tertials dark reddish-brown, almost black, the last with purple reflexions. The tail above much the same colour as the back, the inner webs being lighter, and barred more or less distinctly with dark brown. The chest and breast of a dull clove-brown, each feather with a dark median stripe, which is bordered by a narrow line of dirty white; belly, flanks and under tail-coverts deep ferruginous, each feather with a dark line along the shaft. The lower side of the w _- tinged with rufous. The tail beneath of a light brownish- grey, mottled and barred with a darker shade. Legs and toes yellow: claws, black. The female is somewhat larger, and of a darker and often redder colour. The young have the iris dark, but greatly resemble the parents, except in wanting the grey head, and having their plumage more mottled — each feather being terminated by a light-coloured patch, winch in some examples is oi a greyish- white, in others ferruginous, ami the bands of the tail are less distinct. Mr. G-urney is of opinion that examples from South Africa do nut possess the grey head, and thereby much re- semble the Australian and Eastern JI finis. It may hence lie inferred, perhaps, that South Africa is only visited by young birds in their first plum _ •SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. ACC1P1WES. 103 FALCONIDjE. Nauclerus fukcatus (Linnaeus *). THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. N~a uclci -us fit i ra t its. Nadclerus, Vigors f. — " Bill small, weak, considerably hooked, with a small and nearly obsolete festoon in the middle. Orbits and sides of the head thinly provided with feathers. Wings very long ; the first and second quill internally emarginate towards the tip. Tail very long and deeply forked. Tarsi very short, not longer than the hind toe and claw ; plumed half way in front, the remaining portion covered with angulated scales. Toes short ; the two lateral almost equal, the hinder nearly equal to the inner. Claws grooved beneath." — Swainson\. Two specimens of this bird having been apparently taken iu this country, it is, in the opinion of some persons, entitled to a place in this work. The first of these two examples occurred at Ballachulish in Argyleshire in 1772, and is recorded by the late Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, in his manuscript journal or 'Adversaria' for that year, the fact having been first published by Fleming in his 'History of British * Falcofnrcatus, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 129 (1766). t Zoological Journal, ii. p. 386 (1825). | Natural History and Classification of Birds, ii. p. 210. 104 falcoxiiu:. Animals' (p. 52). No further particulars however respect- ing it are known, nor does the entry state under what circumstances the bird was observed, as Prof essor Duns, who lately examined the original record, now in the library of the University of Edinburgh, lias kindly informed the Editor. Details of the second example are more precise. In the extracts from the Minute Book of the Linnnean Society printed at the end of the Fourteenth volume of its 'Transac- tions' (p. 583) under date "Nov. 4, 1823" there is a notice of a communication by Dr. Sims mentioning, on the authority of the late Mr Fothergill of Carr End near Ark- riffg in Yorkshire, the occurrence of a Swallow-tailed Kite near Hawes in Wensleydale in that county. The Editor has been favoured by a son of the gentleman last named — Mr "William Fothergill of Darlington — with a complete corroboration of this story in the shape of the original note in the handwriting of his father. This note states that "On the Gth of September 1805, during a tremendous thunder-storm a bird, of which a correct description follows, was observed flying about in Shaw Gill, near Simonstone, and alighting upon a tree was knocked down by a stick thrown at it, which however did not prove fatal, as I saw it alive and had an opportunity of carefully examining it four days after it was taken." A very accurate description of the specimen, which will be found at the end of this article, follows, and the note proceeds thus — the latter portion having to all appearance been written subsequently: — "The bird was kept to the 27th, and then made its escape, by the door of the room being left open while shewing [it] to some company. At first it arose high in the air, but being violently attacked by a party of Eooks, it alighted in the tree in which it was first taken. When its keeper approached, it took a lofty flight towards the south, as far as the eye could follow, and has not since been heard of. — [Signed] AV. Fothergill. Sepr. 30th, 1805." The Editor has further been kindly shewn by his obliging correspondent a letter addressed to his rather the following year by his nephew — the late Mr. Charles Fothergill of York — an ardent naturalist, who says "I have also SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 105 proved, what I expected would be the case, that the Falco taken at Hardraw Scarr was the Swallow-tailed Falcon or Falco fur- catus of Linnseus." Unaccountable then as the fact may be, it rests on the evidence of perfectly competent witnesses, and there is accordingly no room for doubt in this case. Since this time three more examples of the Swallow-tailed Kite have been said to have been killed in England (Zoologist, pp. 4166, 4366, 4406, 4407, 5042), but on authority that must at present be regarded as insufficient, while a fourth, asserted to have been shot on the Mersey in June 1843, and to have been formerly in the Macclesfield Museum, was sold by public auction in London in June, 1861. The Swallow-tailed Kite is a native of the warmer parts of America, and, except in the instances above cited, is not known to have occurred elsewhere in the Old World. In the United States, where it is a summer visitor, Mr George N. Lawrence includes it among the birds of New York and New Jersey, and it occasionally strays to Philadelphia ; but in the middle of the continent it occurs more regularly 'fur- ther to the north, and, according to Dr Brewer, breeds in Wisconsin, where it was also noticed by Dr. Hoy ; while Nuttall states that it ascends the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony, and Dr. Coues records it from Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri. It does not however seem to occur to the west of the Eocky Mountains. In the Atlantic States it is not uncommon from -North Carolina southward, frequenting the banks of rivers but not the sea-board. It breeds in South Carolina, Georgia and all the States bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Thence it appears to be spread throughout the conterminous countries lying to the southward at least as far as the Tropic of Capricorn, having been obtained by Natterer near Mo de Janeiro, while Vieillot states that it visits Buenos Ayres and occurs in Peru. In the West India Islands it has been observed in Jamaica by Mr. Richard Hill and in Cuba by Dr. Gundlach. In Trinidad, Leotaud says that it is a regular visitant in the rainy season from July to October, but that he never met with the young. The habits of this bird have been described in detail by vol. I. p 10G FALCONID.i:. many observers, as the one last mentioned, Schornburgk, Princo Max, Xuttall and Wilson. Audubon writing of the species says : — ■ "They always feed on the wing. In calm and warm weather, they soar to an immense height, pursuing the large insects called Musquito Hawks, and performing the most singular evolutions that can be conceived, using their tail with an elegance of motion peculiar to themselves. Their principal food, however, is large grasshoppers, grass-cater- pillars, small snakes, lizards, and frogs. They sweep close over the fields, sometimes seeming to alight for a moment to secure a snake, and holding it fast by the neck, carry it off, and devour it in the air. When searching for grasshoppers and caterpillars, it is not difficult to approach them under cover of a fence or tree. When one is then killed and falls to the ground, the whole flock conies over the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it off." Dr. Bonyan (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1851, p. 57) in some notes on this species as observed by him in British Guyana, -tales that it takes small birds when feeding, adding that it soars to a greater height than any other Hawk known to him, and Mr. Robert Owen has given an interesting account (Ibis, 1860, p. 240) of a large Hock of Swallow-tailed Kites, from an hundred-and-fifty to three-hundred in number, which he encountered while travelling in Guatemala. They were gliding tn and fro near the ground, some of them within a dozen yards of it, in a close body, not one straying from the rest, in a manner that reminded him of our English Swifts, and he found that they were feeding upon a, swarm of bees which was slowly skirting the hillside. "At times," he continues, "birds would pass within four or five yards of us, giving us time to observe their movements accurately. Every now and then the neck would be bent slowly and gracefully, bringing the head quite under the body, the beak continuing closed. At the same time, the foot, with the talons contracted as if holding an object in its grasp, would be broughl forward until it met the beak. This position was only sustained a moment, during which the beak was SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 107 seen to open ; the head was then, with closed beak, raised again, and the foot thrown back. This movement was repeated very frequently, precisely the same actions being observable on every occasion, and this not only in the case of one bird, but of all of them." Nuttall says that the Swallow-tailed Kites at times also seize upon the nests of locusts and wasps, and, like the Honey-Buzzard, devour both the mature insects and their larvae ; but snakes and lizards form their usual food. Mac- gillivray remarks that this species, unlike (so far as is known) all other Falconidce, possesses no crop or enlargement of the oesophagus. Common as this bird is in various parts of America, very little seems known about its mode of breeding. Audubon describes the nest as placed on the top branches of the tallest trees and resembling that of a Crow, being formed of sticks, intermixed with Spanish moss and lined with coarse grasses and a few feathers. Mr. Dresser, who found the species very abundant in some parts of Texas, and had a good opportunity of observing it, states (Ibis, 1865, p. 326) that those he noticed in the month of May were preparing their nests in some high cotton-wood trees in a grove close to a creek near the Eio Colorado. He did not succeed in getting any of the eggs, but Mr. Henry Buckley has kindly forwarded the following description of one which he has received from Iowa : — " White with a very faint bluish tinge, marked all over, especially at the smaller end, with dark umber blotches of two shades. Except in size it is not unlike some Ospreys', and measures 178 by 1*44 in." Another egg from the same source now in Mr. Dresser's collection is much less highly coloured, and that gentleman remarks of it that " the grain most resembles that of a Marsh-Harrier's, but it has no gloss whatever. In form also it is not unlike the egg of that bird, and measures 1*95 by 1*5 in." Mr. Buckley's correspondent informs him that the eggs are usually, if not always, two in number, and are laid at the end of May or early in June, in nests resembling that described, as above, by Audubon. The following is Mr. Fothergill's description, as above mentioned, of the example taken in Yorkshire in 1805 : — I OS l'ALrox ii uo. - Length 22 inches, breadth 4 feet 1 inch. The bill to the corner of the mouth 1', inch long, much hooked, sharp and without a process : the tip black, apex, cere and orbits of the eye, pale blue. Irides a deep fiery red. Cere and base of the bill closely fringed with long black bristles. Head, neck and all the under parts of a pure and brilliant white; the shafts of the feathers on the crown of the head and ears delicately pencilled with black. Back, scapulars, wings and tail of a fine glossy black, varying according to the light it is placed in to green, purple and crimson. The lesser wing-coverts finely margined and tipped with white; the under wing- coverts of a pure white, tail long and forked and consisting of ten feathers, the longest of which are 12 inches, the shortest, or bottom of the fork, 6 inches. The wings, when closed, reach exactly to the end of the tail, and cross their long points over the rump. Legs very short and strong, much scaled, and, with the feet, of a dirty bluish- white; claws white. The leathers of the thighs so long as nearly to conceal the legs. Suppose it to be the Swallow- tailed Falcon." It would be impossible to add to the completeness of the foregoing description : nothing could more conclusively show that the supposition with which it closes was correct. It only remains to state that the figure here given was taken from a specimen formerly in the Museum of the Zoological Society. ^ " "^-^/r^^ ' COMMON BUZZARD. ACCIP1THKS. 109 FALCONIL.-E. Buteo vulgaris, Leach*. THE COMMON BUZZABI). But co vulgaris. Buteo, Lacfyidef. — Bill rather small and vreak, bending from the base, ptirt of the cut-ing edge of the upper mandible slightly projecting; cere large; nostrils oval. Wings ample; the first quill-feather short, about equal in length to the seventh, the fourth the longest ; the first four feathers with the inner webs deeply notched. Tarsi short, strong, scaled or feathered. Toes short; claws strong. The Buzzard is one of the least rare of the larger kind of Hawks which inhabit the wooded districts of this country, preying upon small quadrupeds, birds and reptiles. Its * Systematic Catalogue of Mammalia and Birds in the British Museum, p. 10 (1816). f Memoires de lTnstitut, iii. p. 506 (1800-1801). 110 FALCONIH.K. courage, as compared with ethers of the Falconidce, has been questioned; since it is known to attack snch animals as arc cither young or defenceless, which it dues not pursue in flight but seizes upon the ground. Though occasionally seen soaring in the air in circles, it is more frequently observed stationed on a tree, from which if approached it starts out with a confused and hurried flight, indicative of fear. In such cases it has probably been resting after its meal, and Sir William Jardine states that he has known the same station taken up day after day, and hours spent by the bird in motionless repose. If not suddenly disturbed when roused from its perch, or during the season of incubation, says the same observer, " the flight is slow and majestic; the birds rise in easy and graceful gyrations, often to an immense height, uttering occasionally their shrill and melancholy whistle. At this time, to a spectator under- neath, and in particular lights, they appear of immense size; the motions of the tail when directing the circles may be plainly perceived, as well as the beautiful markings on it and on the wings, sometimes rendered very plain and distinct by the body being thrown upwards and the light falling on the clear and silvery tints of the base of the leathers. The Buzzard is a line accompaniment to the landscape, whether sylvan or wild and rocky." Macgillivray also gives the Buzzard a character for great activity; but the nature of the country where he observed it may require greater exertion to ensure a sufficient supply of food. In Scotland it generally forms its nest on rocks, or on the edges of steep scars or beds of torrents: one nest described by the writer last named was placed in such a situation and was composed of twigs, heather, wool and other substances. A nest seen by Wolley was built into the roots of a mountain-ash, between the trunk and the rock, and made of heather-stalks lined with Luzula. Another visited by him was on the horizontal bough of a Scotch-fir, ami the year before had been occupied by a. Kite; but in all the nests described by him the Luzula formed part of the lining. In England the Buzzard usually builds, or takes to, COMMON BUZZARD. Ill a nest in the forked branches of a tree in a large wood : the materials with which the nest is made, or repaired, are similar to those that have been already named. The female lays two or three, and sometimes four eggs, of a short oval form, measuring from 2 '32 to 2 by T86 to 1'58 in., and greatly resembling those of the Eed Kite already described, but seldom if ever presenting any trace of the violet tints which the latter not unfrequently exhibit. Both parent birds attend upon and feed their young with great assiduity ; and Willughby says, that the male Buzzard will brood the offspring if the hen is killed, as is the case with many kinds of birds. The young accompany the parents for some little time after they quit the nest ; and White of Selborne adds, that they follow their dam with a piping and wailing noise. The partiality of this species to the task of incubation and rearing young birds has been exemplified in various instances, one of the latest being mentioned by Mr. Eocke (Zool. p. 9686). Many years ago a female Buzzard, kept in a garden at Uxbridge, showed an inclination to sit by collect- ing all the loose sticks she could obtain. Her owner, noticing her actions, supplied her with materials ; she completed her nest, and sat on two hen's eggs, which she hatched, and afterwards reared the young. For some years afterwards she thus hatched and brought up a brood of chickens annually. One summer, to save her the fatigue of sitting, some young chickens just hatched were put down to her ; but she destroyed the whole. Her family in June, 1831, consisted of nine. When flesh was given to her, she was very assiduous in tearing and offering it as food to her nurslings. Though far more rare now than formerly, an enumeration of the counties in which this bird yet continues to breed is hardly necessary. In the eastern and midland parts, however, as as- certained by Mr. More a few years ago, it has been nearly exter- minated, though migratory examples not unfrequently occur in autumn. In the west and north of Great Britain, except- ing the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys and Shetlands, it still Ill* FALCONID^E. breeds regularly. In Ireland, according to Thompson, it was generally to be found in suitable localities, but in Mr. Watters's opinion was chiefly confined to the northern counties, where it bred along the basaltic precipices of the coast. It is doubtful whether such is now the case. The continued destruction of this species in the British Islands is a matter to bo deplored by others than ornithologists. Mr. Hepburn writing to Macgillivray says: — "Besides devouring mice, the Buzzard is of great service to the farmer in effectually driving off the Pang-Doves from the corn:" and Mr. Robert Gray remarks that if it were allowed to fulfil the ends for which nature designed it, our native game-birds would benefit by the trial, adding that, " So far as my own observations have extended, the Common Buzzard is just the kind of instrument wanted to clear off sickly young birds, which on arriving at maturity yield an offspring of a degenerate breed. Of somewhat sluggish habits, it does not care to interfere with- strong-winged birds, being content with those that, through wounds or a naturally feeble con- stitution, are unable to save themselves. In this way strong birds only are left, and a healthy breed ensues." There can be little doubt that the conclusions of these observers are indisputable. On the continent of Europe this Buzzard is very generally distributed, and in some countries is abundant. The most northern limit of its breeding-range is not perhaps very accurately known ; but Herr Wallengren was probably cor- rect when he put it at G2 J X. lat. for Norway and. 6 6° for Sweden. In Finland, as far north as Kajana, it is stated by Dr. Malmgren to breed and to be the commonest of the Falconidce ; but further eastward Prof. Lilljeborg found it rare between Lake Onega and Archangel. From this point its course is not easily traced, few of the Russian ornitho- logists having met with il except in the southern provinces of their country; but Dr. von Middendorff found it breed- ing not uncommonly on the Stannovoi Mountains in the extreme east of Siberia, particularly remarking that the example lie obtained was not referable to the Butco COMMON BUZZARD. 113 ja/ponicus — a bird which is so nearly allied as by some authorities to be regarded as specifically identical with B. vulgaris, but distinguishable by having its tarsi more feathered. The Common Buzzard was formerly said to occur in the hill-country of India, but Mr. Allan Hume has lately expressed a doubt on the subject which Mr. Jerdon is understood to be satisfied is correct. Menetries says that it is tolerably common in the Caucasus, and Canon Tristram found it very plentiful in Palestine in winter. In Egypt it is a rare visitor, and only at that season. Loche says it is common throughout Algeria and breeds there, but other naturalists have not been so fortunate as to find it. Never- theless it inhabits the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores- — the last group of islands taking its name from this bird, though the Portugueze word Acor (a corruption of the Latin Astur) is not that which is usually bestowed upon it. In North America this species is represented by the nearly- allied Buteo sivainsoni, nowadays considered distinct, as well as by others of the genus, one of which, Buteo lincatus or the Eed-shouldered Buzzard, is recorded (Ibis, 1865, p. 549) as having once occurred in Scotland. From information received from Mr. Gurney it appears also that an example of Buteo desertonem (Daudin) — a species of extensive southern and eastern range, has been killed in Wiltshire ; but as yet no record of the fact seems to have been made public. The whole length of the Common Buzzard is from twenty to twenty-three inches, depending on the sex, — the females being the largest ; from the anterior bend of the wing to the end of the longest primary fourteen inches and three- eighths. In colour this species is subject to very great variation, so much so that in a large series no two may be found precisely alike, and the difference cannot be generally ascribed to age, sex or locality. Some are almost entirely of a yellowish-white with a few brown feathers interspersed, while others are of a nearly uniform dark chocolate-brown. To describe the almost endless intermediate phases of plumage would here be impossible, but the following may VOL. I. Q 1 14 FAD'OXIIU:. give some idea of the ordinary appearance of the Common Buzzard. The beak is bluish-black, darkest towards the point; the cere yellow, the hides yellowish-brown. The top of the head and cheeks pale brown, streaked longitudinally with darker brown; the back, wing-coverts, upper tail-coverts and the tail above, dark clove-brown, the latter barred with lighter brown, the feathers of the former having lighter- coloured edges ; the primaries brownish-black; the chin and throat almost white; front of the neck, breast, under wing- coverts, belly and thighs, greyish-white, spotted and streaked with broeoli-brown ; under tail-coverts white; the tail beneath greyish-white, barred transversely with dark wood-brown; legs and toes yellow; the claws black. Mr. G-urney believes that tin; variation in the plumage of this species is greater in lards of the first or second year than in those which are older, and that adults may lie known by a slight rufous tinge on the tail-feathers. The colour of the iris also varies from a dark hazel to a light brownish-yellow, this last being usually observable in the birds which have the palest plumage. Albino varieties occasionally occur, and of these the Norwich Museum pos- sesses a perfect specimen, obtained at Metz, by Mr. J. H. G-urney, Junior. The vignette below, is from a sketch of the Buzzard, taken in the garden referred to at page 111. . A,-J HOUGH-LEGGED BUZZAIH ) ACC1PITRES, Buteo lagopus (J. F. Gmelin *). THE EOUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. Buteo lagopus. The Rough-legged Buzzard is at once distinguished from the Common Buzzard last described, by having the tarsi covered, in front and on the sides, with feathers as low- down as the origin of the toes, from which fact it has, with some other species possessing the same peculiarity, been re- moved from the genus Buteo, and made the type of a genus Arehibuteo, a course which has met with the approval of many authorities. In its habits and powers, however, it resembles * Falco lagopus, J. F. Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 260 (1787). 1 TO FAD oMKr. the Common Buzzard ; hut it does not exhibit quite the same extent of variation in the colour of the plumage. The Rough - legged Buzzard, although ii has been killed in almost every English county, and occurs, occasionally in large numbers, in this country every year, must be regarded as the uiore rare bird of the two, and is usually observed in -autumn or winter. But instances have been recorded of its breeding in Great Britain, the most trustworthy perhaps of which is that mentioned by the late Mr. Williamson of Scarborough, who in a communication made to the Zoological Society in 1836, stated that it "breeds occasionally in a precipitous dell near Hackness," and further particulars on this subject have been supplied i" Mr. More (Ibis, L865, p. 12) by Mr. Alwin Bell. Mr. Edward of Banff also says (Zool. p. 5201) thai its nest lias been found in thai neighbourhood. The Rough-legged Buzzard appears to prefer much the same kind of habitat as the Common Buzzard; but when it visits the British Islands it rather haunt- the open country and especially such districts as abound in rabbits, which with smaller mammals, water-fowl and reptiles constitute ii- chief f I. In some years the number which occurs is very large, and the autumn of 1839 was particularly thus distinguished. Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, iii. p. 736) has noticed its abundance at that time in various parts of this as Messrs. G irney and Fisher have also done with especial reference to the neighbourhood of Thetford. Jn 1858, according to Mr. Stevenson, it was again numerous in the locality lasl mentioned, [n Scotland it appears also in autumn, and al irregular periods is plentiful, but more com- monly "ii the east than on the wesl coast. In Ireland several instances of its occurrence are on record. The flight of this bird is slow but smooth, and, except during its migrations, is seldom continued for any greal th of time. It generally has its nest on high trees, and rather early in the year, from three to five eggs, a very ies of which was obtained in Lapland by the late Mr. Wolley, some of the mosl beautiful being figured in the catalog »f his collection (Ooth. Woll. pis. v., vi.i. They BOUGH-LEGGED BUZZABD. 117 vary exceedingly in colour, shape and size. Some cannot be distinguished from those of the preceding species or of the Kite, while others are tinted and marked almost as richly as the finest eggs of the Golden Eagle. They measure from 244 to 1*82 by 1"95 to 1'53 in. Several nests were examined by the accurate and enthusiastic naturalist last named. One, to which he climbed, was in a Scotch-fir of no great size, and contained two young birds, one not many days hatched, the other much larger. They were white, just like young Eaglets. The nest was small, made of old sticks with a few twigs of the fir and a little of the black hair- like lichen which gr - abundantly in the northern forests. The situation was near the edge of a great marsh with trees all around. Other nests were in taller trees and were larger in size, and the bird will occasionally use an old nest of the Osprey. On approaching its haunts in the breeding season the Rough-legged Buzzard will betray its presence by a plaintive wailing which has been compared by some persons to the mewing of a cat, while to the ears of others it sounds not unmusically, though never so much so as the whistling notes of a K This species inhabits the northern parts of the Eui and Asiatic continents, hi Norway and .Sweden it breeds in the higher subalpine districts, and in Lapland, even to the neighbourhood of the North Cape, is the most common bird of prey. In Russia Pallas states that it is somewhat rare, but common in Siberia, even in the extreme north and in Dauuria. Dr. von Middendorff found it breeding on the Boganida, but neither Dr. von Schrenck nor Herr Eadde mention its occurrence in Amoor-land or in South-eastern Siberia. The southern limit of its eastern range is unknown, but it has not been taken in India. Messrs. Elwes and Buckley saw examples which had been killed near Constan- tinople, and Dr. Erhard says that it occurs in winter in the Cyclades, though neither Yon der Muhle nor Dr. Linder- mayer have observed it in Greece. It occasionally appears in northern Italy, and, according to Savi, Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte obtained one at Pome. In Savoy it would seem IIS I'AI.COXID.i:. to be somewhat less scarce, but MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy- Lapommeraye term it one of the rarest species of the south of France. It does not seem to cross the Mediterranean, though it has occurred in Sardinia, and, according to Mr. Charles Wright, it is stated that two examples have 1 n recognized at Malta. It has been included by several Spanish naturalists as a bird of their country, but there can be little doubt that the little Booted Eagle, Aquila pennata, has been the species they mistook for it. and the same explanation is probably to be given of the statements of Le Vaillant and Sir Andrew Smith as to its occurrence at the Cape of Good Hope. In northern Germany, especially towards the east, it is a regular winter visitant, and Dr. Borggreve remarks that it frequents the open country in preference to the forests. It breeds in Pomerania, but whether it does so further to the southward seems uncertain. Dr. Kjasrbolling quotes au- thority for a nest being found in Jutland, but its character in Denmark generally is that of a bird of passage. In Holland and Belgium, as with us, it appears to pass the winter. Nearly all the Rough-legged Buzzards which occur in the British Islands are in immature plumage, which in this species, as in so many of the true Falcon-;, differs from that of the adult, by the transverse instead of longitudinal markings of the lower parts. Indeed, mature examples are of a very rare occurrence in tins country. Mr. Stevenson -ays in his 'Birds of Norfolk' that he has only known of four being killed in that and the adjoining county, one of which was trapped in duly, 1848, but he has kindly for- warded information of a fifth obtained in the spring of the present year (1871). By many ornithologists the change which this species undergoes in its progress to maturity has been erroneously described or not understood at all. Mr. Gurney is of opinion that the fully adult dress is not assumed until the third year. The old bird has been but seldom represented, there is however a very characteristic figure of it in Xaumann's ' Vogel Deutschlands ' (pi. xxxiv.), and the beautiful plate in Mr. Gould's 'Birds of (deal Britain 5 leaves little to be desired, while an excellent. KOUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 119 woodcut from a European example is to be found in Cooper's ' Birds of California/ where as in the rest of North America the true Buteo lagopus is represented by a closely allied species, the B. sancti-johannis, characterized by its generally more rufous, and sometimes much darker plumage. As already stated, the Eough-legged Buzzard is subject to some considerable individual variation, and it is impossible in a few words to give a description that shall meet all cases. Some adult birds in the Norwich Museum, however, present an appearance as follows. The beak is dark horn-colour, the cere yellow and irides hazel. The lores are thickly set with black hairs.. The top of the head, ear-coverts and back of the neck are white, each feather having a dark yel- lowish-brown streak along the shaft, which streaks increase in width backward so that less and less of the white is shewn, and in some examples almost all admixture of white disappears upon the back and scapulars, while in others the feathers of these parts are white, with two or more broad and irregular bars, a broad terminal band of dark brown, and occasionally an edging of rust-colour. The upper wing-coverts are similar, but there is usually a good deal of white shewn along the outer edge of the fore-arm and wrist. The primaries are brownish-black, often hoary on the outer web, with a large patch of pure white at the base. The secondaries and tertials are greyish-brown with several bands of blackish-brown and a greyish-white tip. The lower part of the back deep brown, the upper tail-coverts white with two or more broad brown bars. The tail is pure white at the base, and then crossed with two or three bars of dark brown, the distal bar being about twice as broad as the others, and the interspaces and tip white, often mottled with greyish-brown and ferruginous. The chin, throat and upper part of the breast, white with a dark brown irregularly shaped patch in each feather, these patches being largest on the sides of the breast, but altogether ceasing across its middle, to reappear suddenly, a little lower down, in the more regular form of brownish-black bars, which extend over the belly and thighs. The under tail-coverts pure white. The 120 FA U'< >N I ]>.K. feathers of the tibiae and tarsi sometimes white and some- times a deep ferruginous, but invariably having numerous liars of dark brown. The feet yellow, the claws dark horn- colour. The whole length of the immature specimen figured was twenty-four inches; the beak black; the cere and irides yellow; the top of the head, the cheeks, nape and upper part ct' the neck, pale buff, each feather streaked or patched in the centre with dark" brown ; the back, wing-coverts and rump, clove-brown, some of the feathers edged with fawn- colour; primaries brownish-black ; upper tail-coverts buffy- white, with an angular brown patch near the end of each feather; upper surface of the tail buffy-white on the proximal half, the distal half brown. The chin, throat and breast, fawn-colour, tinged with ferruginous, streaked and patched with brown; the belly almost uniform clove-brown; thighs and tarsi covered with feathers of fawn-colour spotted with brown: the toes yellow; the claws black; under surface of the primaries to the end of the broad part of the inner web, white, from the emargination, brownish-black; under tail- coverts uniform buffy-white; proximal half of the under surface of the tail white, the distal half greyish-brown. HONEY-BUZZARD. ACCIPITRES. 121 FALCONID.E. Pernis apivorus (Linnaeus *). THE HONEY-BUZZARD. Pernis apivorus. Pernis, Cuvier\. — Bill slender, rather weak, curved from the base, the cutting edge of the upper mandible nearly straight: the cere large; nostrils elongated, placed obliquely; the lores closely covered with small scale-like feathers. Wings long and large ; the first quill-feather short ; the third and fourth feathers the longest; inner webs of the first four deeply notched. Tail long. Tarsi short, half-plumed, the rest reticulated; toes of moderate length and strength; the claws slender and only slightly curved. The Honey-Buzzard is a rare species in this country, and if not exclusively a summer- visitor the fact is mainly * Falco apivorus, Linnaeus, ISyst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766). f Re'gne Animal, i. p. 322 (1817). VOL. I. R 122 FALCON 1 1 >.K. owing to its numbers being increased in autumn by an immigration, which is chiefly noticeable on the cast coast, from abroad; these so arriving being mostly birds of the year. It lias long been known to breed in Encdand. Wil- lughby, who was the first to give this species an English name, describes two young Honey-Buzzards which lie saw in a nest that bad formerly been a Kile's. They were covered with white down, through which the dark feathers were appearing, and had been fed with wasp-grubs, lizards and frees. Pennant in 1766 figured a supposed hen bird which was shot from her nest containing two eggs, and all English naturalists arc familiar with the account given by Gilbert White of the nest in a tall slender beech in Sel- borne Hanger, to which, in 1780, a held boy climbed and brought down the single egg it contained. In 1794 Dr. Heysham mentioned that it had bred in Cumberland. For seme time however it was usually thought that there was no more recent instance of the Honey-Buzzard breeding in this country, though the British Museum contained a speci- men from Cornwall with its primaries not fully grown, and Mr. Gould in 1837 was aware that the species bred annually at Burnham Beeches (Mag. Nat. Hist. N.S. i. p. 539), while not lone after Macgillivray recorded a nest with three eees taken in Aberdeenshire. In 'The Zoologist' for 1844 (p. 237) the late Mr. Wilmol gave an interesting account of a pair of birds, shot in Wellgrove Weed near Henley-on-Thames, in 1838, which had a nesl with two eggs, one of which is new in the Wolley Collection, while the skins of the parents are in the possession of Mr Fullei- Maitland. Mention was in the same place made of a pair killed at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire in 1841, which also had a nest. Since this time instances have keen recorded of the Honey-Buzzard breeding in Northumberland, Shrop- shire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire — to say nothing of the New Forest, where it still almost yearly breeds or attempts to breed, \'>>r between the desire of collectors to possess specimens and of gamekeepers and idlers to provide them, it: has bul little chance of accomplishing its HONEY-BUZZARD. 123 end. Mr. Henry John Elwes and Mr. Beaven Bake have kindly contributed some valuable information on this subject, but in the interest of the birds no true naturalist would wish that the precise particulars should be at present pub- lished. The nests are said to be generally placed in a tall oak, between twenty-five and fifty feet from the ground, and are built externally of dead sticks, some as large as a finger, with lichens adhering, the interior being formed of smaller twigs and lined with wool and freshly plucked oak and beech-leaves.* The persecutors of this very harmless bird are by no means content with taking its eggs : they succeed wherever it is possible in destroying the parents as well, and there can be little doubt, if the present state of things is allowed to go on, that the species will be soon extirpated in this locality. Three seems to be the full number of eggs laid by the Honey-Buzzard. They have a buffy-white ground which is usually more or less entirely obscured by large blotches of dark brownish-crimson or orange-brown, in most specimens distributed pretty equally over the shell, but occasionally collected iii a broad zone round the middle, or forming a cap at either of the ends. A variety which is not so very uncommon much resembles some eggs of the Peregrine Falcon. They measure from 2*06 to 1*91 by 173 to 1-49 in. In Scotland a second nest has been of late years taken in Aberdeenshire as stated on the authority of Mr. W. C. Angus, and according to Mr. Bobert Gray a very considerable number of birds have been killed at various places and times, but most frequently in the east, and two examples, curiously enough, in winter. In Ireland the occurrence of this species is much rarer, but several instances are on record. According to the best information available the following is an outline of the Honey-Buzzard's geographical distribu- * The Editor has been informed by Mr. Newcome, who has himself observed the fact, that in France the Honey-Buzzard, when it has young, surrounds the nest with a bower of leafy boughs — whether to serve as a screen or a barrier he does not know, and while the bird is so persecuted we in England shall not easily ascertain. The young remain long in the nest and the boughs as they wither are frequently renewed. 124 falcoxiiu:. tion. It breeds in the southern parts of Norway, and examples taken from the nest in that country have been sent to the Zoological Gardens by Mr. Percy Godman, but it is not a common bird there and does not, in the opinion of Herr Collett, cross the Dovre-fjeld. In Sweden it cer- tainly goes much further north, and Wolley obtained its eggs from the neighbourhood of the Finnish frontier some way within the Arctic circle. Pallas states that it has been observed throughout Russia and Siberia, but the enterprising ornithologists who have more recently explored the most northern and eastern parts of Asia have not met with it, though it occurs in Japan, whence there is a specimen in the Ley den Museum, and Pere David lias obtained it in autumn near Pekin. It apparently does not inhabit India — the examples from that country, formerly attributed to it, belonging to another species, the Pemis ptilorhynchus. In Palestine the Honey-Buzzard is rather scarce, though believed to be a resident, but in Arabia and Egypt, where it is said to be common, it seems to be only a winter visitant. Two specimens have been sent from Natal to Mr. Gurney, and though it has not occurred to Mr. La yard in the Cape Colony, it is believed that the "Tachard" of Le Vaillant, which he says he procured there, is founded upon this species. The Leyden Museum contains two examples from the Gold Coast. Singularly enough it does not seem to have been recorded from Algeria : but Mr. G. W. H. Hay mentions it as passing northward over Tangiers in spring in immense numbers, while Lord Lilford on one occasion observed the return autumnal flight, consisting of many hundreds, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar from Spain to Africa. Throughout all the countries in which it is found, the Honey-Buzzard seems to be a local bird, but it is a well- known species in almost every pail" of Europe, and the places where it occurs, even, as it were, accidentally, and is killed, are often visited by other examples for several years in suc- cession. Thus Sir William Jardine remarks of one killed in Northumberland : — "The district around Twizel appears to have something HONEY-BUZZARD. 125 attractive to this species, for, within these few years, several specimens have been procured both in the adult and im- mature plumage. The bird in question was accidentally observed to rise from the situation of a wasp's nest, which it had been attempting to excavate, or in fact to a certain extent had accomplished, and the large hole which had been scraped, shewed that a much greater power could be employed, and that the bird possessed organs much better fitted to remove the obstacles which generally concealed its prey, than a superficial examination of the feet and legs would warrant us in ascribing to it. A few hours after- wards, the task was found to be entirely completed, the comb torn out and cleared from the immature young ; and after-dissection proved that at this season (autumn) at least, birds or mammalia formed no part of the food. A steel- trap, baited with the comb, secured the aggressor in the course of the next day, when he had returned to review the scene of his previous havoc." Examination has usually proved the food to have been the larva? of bees and wasps, obtained in the manner above described ; but the remains of coleopterous and lepidopterous insects have also been found in the stomach of the Honey- Buzzard, as well as corn, earth-worms, slugs, small birds' eggs and moles, while M. G-erbe discovered a young Wild Duck and a fish in a nest he saw. The feet have been noticed to be covered with cow-dune^ shewing- that the bird had been searching therein for the grubs it contained. One example is said to have been shot in the act of pursuing a Wood-Pigeon, and Mr. Sterland records the very singular capture in Inkersal Forest of two Honey-Buzzards taken simultaneously in a trap baited with a rabbit.* A bird of * A somewhat similar instance has long been known to the Editor. A pair of Kestrels, together with a Red-legged Partridge, were found by a gamekeeper in the same trap, which was set at the mouth of a rabbit-burrow. The Partridge must, as is the habit of the species, have been about to take shelter in the hole at the moment when the Hawks seized it. All three birds are still preserved at Cavenham Hall, in Suffolk, where the occurrence took place. An instance of the simultaneous capture of a Falcon and a Stock-Dove is also recorded by the late Mr. Salmon (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 147). 126 FALCON ID. V.. this species, kept in confinement, killed and ate rats, as well as birds of considerable size, with great case and good appetite. Buffon says, that in winter, when fat, the Honey- Buzzard is good cat ing. As was long ago observed by Willughby, the Honey- Buzzard "runs very swiftly like a Hen," and its carriage and tin' short, rounded feat hers which clothe its lores give ii the must nnhawk-like look of all tin 1 British Falconidce. Mr. Newcome, who obtained some young birds from the nest in France, Pound them, though allowed complete liberty, to lie exceedingly tame and domestic. Notwith- standing their familiarity, however, as autumn approached they disappeared, joining no doubt the hands of their brethren migrating southwards at that season. This species, like some of the true Buzzards, presents remarkable variety in colour and markings, especially in birds of the first or second year; hut after the assumption of the uniform ashy-grey head, indicating maturity, there is little irregularity. Some extreme variations are well illus- trated in Xaumann's work on the birds of Germany, and a series of figures, intending to shew the successive changes of plumage, have been given by Mr. Fisher in 'The Zoologist' for 1842 (pp. 376, 377) and 184:! (p. 79:!). The figure and description here given were taken from a specimen in the British Museum, which was killed near York. The beak is black; the cere grey, the itides yellow; the upper part of the head and hack of the neck buffy- white, with brown streaks; uniform brown above; the primaries nearly black, the tail above barred transversely with two shades of brown ; the front of the neck, breast, and belly, pale yellow-brown ; the shaft and middle'line of eaidi feather marked by a dark brown longitudinal streak or patch, those of the belly t ransversely barred; thighs and under tail-coverts varied with yellowish-brown and white; the legs and toesyellow; the claws black. Ifoney-lhizzards measure from twenty-two to twenty-five inches, depending on tin' sex. in tin.' young the irides are hazel, but become si raw-coloured wit h age. MAKSH-IIAKKIEK. ACC1PITBES. 127 FALCONIDJU. Circus ^eruginosus (Linnaeus*). THE MAESH-HAEEIEE. Circus cerugin osus. Circus, Lacepedef. — Beak small, bending from the base, compressed and elevated ; cutting: edge of the upper mandible with a slight festoon. Cere large. Nostrils oval, and partly concealed by the hairs radiating from the lores. Lower part of the head surrounded by a ruff of small thick-set feathers. Wings long ; the first feather very short, the third and fourth the longest. Tail long. Tarsi long, slender, and naked ; toes rather short, and not very unequal ; claws slightly curved, and very sharp. * Faleo ceruginosus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766). f Me'moires de l'lnstitut, iii. p. 506 (1800-1801). 128 FA U '( )N 1 1 ).K. The Marsh - Harrier or Moor - Buzzard, as its names import, is generally found on low, marshy lands, or unculti- vated moors; and in England was not so many years since very numerous in the fens of Cambridgeshire and the adjoining counties. Its flight is slow, smooth, and generally near the ground. Though from the regular manner in which birds of this genus traverse the surface, looking for prey, like a dog hunting for game, it has been thought that they have acquired the name of Harriers; it seems almost certain that this has been rather conferred from their marauding disposition, since the plundering propensities of the con- spicuously-coloured males of the species next to be described, must have made them in old times a well-known terror to the poultry-wives of the districts bordering on their haunts.* The history of the Harriers as British Birds could not be correctly told without referring to the changes effected by the systematic drainage of the extensive fens of the eastern parts of England from Lincolnshire southward. The result of this process, begun centuries ago but only completed in our own day, has been to firing under the plough many thousands of acres which were formerly overgrown with sedge and sallow-bushes, but now produce an abundance of corn and green-crops. From the districts so reclaimed by the civil engineer, for the good of the agriculturist and through him of the nation at large, the Harriers with many other kinds of birds have been almost entirely banished, and though the naturalist may pardonably lament the con- sequent diminution and loss of so many interesting members of the fauna, and ilora of England, he cannot but recognize it tn have been fairly incurred in obedience to the law which bids man replenish the earth and subdue it. Here it is impossible to enter into details, but the curious may find in an account of the Isle of Ely, written shortly after the It is worthy of remark that the present species was called by the older Eng- li.-h writers, as even of late years by the fenmen, Moor-Buzzard only, and the term .Marsh- Harrier, now generally given to it by ornithologists, is certainly a book-name of comparatively modern application. MARSH-HARRIER. 129 Norman Conquest,* and in Go ugh' s description + of the East Fen, between Reevesby and Wainfleet in Lincolnshire, written not an hundred years ago, much suggestive material ; while a sketch of the chief features of a third part of the fen-country is given in the introduction to Mr Stevenson's 'Birds of Norfolk ' (vol. i. p. liv.). Of the three species of Harrier which once abounded in these very peculiar districts, the present was the first to succumb, and the drainage of Whittlesea Mere in Huntingdonshire, completed in 1851, seems to have given the final blow to its existence as a bird indigenous to this part of the country. Devonshire and the eastern portion of Norfolk are now the only regular breeding- places of this bird in England, according to Mr. More, though its nest may be occasionally found in Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire and Shropshire. In Wales, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire, and the counties from Yorkshire northward it has become historical. In Scotland, on the same authority, Aberdeen- shire furnishes the only locality where it breeds regularly, though it does so occasionally in the counties of Perth, Banff and perhaps Argyll, while a nest is said to have been once known in the Orkneys. Mr. Robert Gray says that the birds which occur in the northern kingdom have generally been in the first or second year's plumage, and that, though on the whole scarce, there are some districts, such as Nether Lochaber and Appin, in which it is comparatively common. In! Ireland Thompson says it was resident in suitable localities throughout the island, and Mr. Watters considered it the most abundant of the larger birds-of-prey. Like the other species of the genus the Marsh-Harrier roosts on the ground, and by day may be seen sitting on a stone, post or low bush, or beating round and round the reeds which skirt the water in search of prey, in its choice of which not much comes amiss — small mammals or birds, the young of larger ones, and wounded animals of all kinds * Liber Eliensis. (Edited for the Society Anglia Christiana by D. J. Stewart.) London : 1868. vol. i. p. 231. f Camden's ' Britannia.' London : 1789. vol. ii. p. 271. VOL. I. S L30 FALCONIDJE. thai can be seized on the ground, reptiles and fishes; but perhaps water-rats and frogs form its chief food, and birds' eggs are an irresistible delicacy. The nest is generally on the ground among sedge, in a bunch of reeds, fern or furze, or at the base of a sallow-bush, but a few instances of its being placed in a tree are recorded. It is formed of sticks, rushes or coarse grass. The eggs are three or four in num- ber, white with a pale greenish tinge, and sometimes slightly spotted with light reddish-brown. They measure from 2"08 to 1"84 by 1/58 to 1"44. While the hen is sitting her mate may be observed for the greater part of the day soaring to a considerable height. On the continent this species does not extend far towards the north. In Norway it has occurred but very seldom and only in the extreme south. In Sweden it breeds in suitable localities of the southern and midland provinces, as also in (Eland, but it is not known to have occurred in Finland. In Eussia and Siberia it is common enough, according to Pallas, but Herr Eadde considers that the statement only refers to the western districts of the latter, for he met with it but twice in the east, and neither Dr. von Middendorff nor Dr. von Schrenck mention its occurring to them. Cap- tain Blakiston obtained it in Japan, whence also there is a specimen in the Leyden Museum. It is generally spread throughout India, and not unfrequently, says Mr Jerdon, carries off wounded birds from the sportsman. De Filippi met with it at Tiflis, and it has been obtained by English travellers at Trebizond, Erzeroom and Smyrna. In Palestine it is very common throughout the year in open places, and it breeds, according to Dr. A. E. Brehm, in the Delta, but Dr. von Heuglin never observed it in Egypt in summer. Mr. Blanford saw it occasionally in the highlands of Abyssinia. Mr Ayres has obtained it in the territory of the Trans-Vaal Eepublic. It occurs in Algeria, but seems to be scarce there and at Tangiers; Mr. Drake, however, states that it is common in Eastern Morocco. Ledru many years Hgo observed it at Teneriffe in the Canary Isles, but Dr. Bolle did not. Mr. Saunders describes it as being abundant MARSH-HARRIER. 131 throughout Spain, and positively swarming in the marshes of the Guadalquivir. In France it is apparently far less common, though it breeds in the singular district of the Camargue at the mouth of the Ehone. In parts of Belgium and in Holland it is numerous, and it breeds also in Denmark and Germany, while in Turkey it is said to be more abundant than any other bird-of-prey. The length of the Marsh-Harrier is from twenty-one to twenty-three inches, depending on the sex ; wing fourteen and a half inches. The figure here given was taken from an adult male in the British Museum. The beak is bluish- black ; the cere and irides yellow ; the top of the head, cheeks and nape of the neck, yellowish-white, tinged with rufous, and streaked with dark brown ; the back, wing- coverts and tertials, dark reddish-brown, with lighter mar- gins ; the primaries brownish-black ; the secondaries and tail ash-grey. It is possible that this state of plumage is not assumed till the third moult. In birds that are still older, the wing-coverts and tertials in addition become par- tially or entirely ash-grey ; the primaries slate-grey ; the chin and throat nearly white ; the breast rufous, streaked longitudinally with dark brown ; belly, thighs and under tail-coverts, reddish-brown, each feather streaked with dark brown ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. In young birds of the year, the whole of the plumage is chocolate-brown ; the feathers tipped with lighter reddish- brown ; the irides then are yellowish-hazel and remain so in the females at all ages. In the second year, the head, neck, chin and throat become dull yellow, with occasionally a patch of the same colour on the carpus, or anterior point of the wing. The figure given by Bewick represents a bird in this stage. Messrs. Elwes and T. E. Buckley mention a specimen of a deep brown, almost black, all over. "Duck-Hawk," "Harpy," and "White-headed Harpy," ' are names occasionally bestowed on the Marsh-Harrier. L32 ACCIPITRES. FALCON" I U.K. FALCOXID.E Circus cyaneus (Linnaeus*). THE HEN-HAEEIEE. Circus cyaneus. The decided difference in colour between the males and females of must of the Harriers when adult is a subject now well understood ; but in no species is it more conspicuous than tin.' present. The old male, from his almost uniform ash-grey colour, as seen in the figure, is often called provincially the " Dove-Hawk," 'Tdue Hawk" or "Miller," and by the more general name of Hen-Harrier. The female, or " Eingtail," as will appear from the description at the end of this article, is entirely different; and a representation of the head of • /•',//,,, cyaneus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 12''. (17u6). HEX-HAEKIER. 133 one forms the subject of the vignette, in which the circular ruff around the face — a character more or less exhibited by all the species of the genus, is distinctly seen. Though it had been previously supposed by many naturalists that the Hen-Harrier and the Eingtail were the male and female of the same species, others held the opinion that they were distinct, and Montagu seems to have been the first who actually and clearly proved that the remarkable difference between these two birds was but a sexual peculiarity. These birds inhabit flat marshy situations, fens, low moors a,nd commons, partially covered with furze, heather, sedge and low bushes. They feed indiscriminately on small mam- mals, birds, and reptiles : twenty lizards were found in the stomach of one killed near London. They have been con- sidered to be particularly destructive to the eggs and young of gallinaceous birds, and consequently their destruction has been much compassed by those who desired to preserve their poultry or their game, though the almost entire disappearance of this and the other species of Harriers from their chief haunts, especially in the East of England, is clue rather to agricultural improvements which have brought into cultiva- tion large tracts of what was formerly waste land. Their flight, performed apparently without much labour, is easy and buoyant, but not rapid, and, except in the breeding sea- son, generally within a few feet of the surface of the ground, which they examine with great care, making close and diligent search for any object of food. They have been observed to hunt the same ground regularly ; and a male bird has been seen to examine a large wheat-stubble thoroughly, crossing it in various directions, always about the same hour in the afternoon, and for many days in succession. The nest is placed on the ground ; the materials collected to form it are ordinarily but few, consisting of small sticks and coarse grass ; when however it is placed on low wet ground, so large a quantity of flags, sedge and reeds are brought together as to raise it from eighteen inches to four feet above the surface, as Mr. Hewitson was informed by one of his correspondents. The eggs are four or five in number, 134 FALCOXID^E. white or very slightly tinged with bluish-green, and occa- sionally marked with a few spots of yellowish-brown. They measure from 2 - 0f> to 1*63 by from 1-56 to T32 in. The male is said to assist in the process of incubation, and has been shot on the nest. The young are hatched early in June, and are at first covered with white down. The Hen-Harrier, though formerly numerous in the fenny district known as the Great Bedford Level, was probably never a very common bird in England. Owing perhaps to its greater adaptability to circumstances it was however more generally distributed in the breeding-season than the preceding species, and, even a few years since, the information gathered by Mr. More shews that it then continued to breed regularly in several English counties — Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Glou- cestershire, Monmouthshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Durham and Cumberland, as well as in both North and South Wales. Occasionally too, nests were then found in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Norfolk (in which county four fledglings were taken in July, 1870), Shropshire and Northumberland; but it had ceased to breed in Wiltshire, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hun- tingdonshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire, though in some of these only very recently. In Scotland the same dili- gent collector of facts ascertained that it yet bred regularly in the counties of "Wigton, Lanark, Selkirk, Haddington and Stirling, in nearly all the Highland shires, the Hebrides and Orkneys, and occasionally in the Shetlands. Mr. Robert Gray states that it is a very common species on all the Hebrides, where it is known by a Gaelic name signifying "Mouse-Hawk." In Ireland, according to Thompson, it is pretty generally dis- tributed over the island, and its nest, has been found in various suitable localities; but, in Mr. Watters's opinion, it is of considerable rarity in the eastern portion, though he has known it to breed on the Wicklow mountains. On the continent of Europe this species is very generally distributed. In Norway, according to Herr Collett, though it is said to occur so far to the north as East Finmark, a single nest only has been known and that in Hedemark. Wolley found it breeding in Lapland considerably beyond HEX-HAKRIEE. 135 lat. 68° X. ; and in Finland it seems to be spread throughout the country. In Eussia and Siberia it is said, by Pallas, to be a very common bird, especially in the desert of Great Tartary. Later travellers describe it as breeding in Dauuria, and Dr. von Middendorff obtained one still further to the north-east, on the river Amgar, whose waters flow into the Lena. It is said to occur in Japan, but Prof. Schlegel refers specimens from that country to the American repre- sentative species, of which more will be said presently. Mr. Swinhoe states that it occurs in China as far south as Canton. In India it has only been found as a winter-visitant to Boo- tan, Nepaul, Kumaon and the north-western Himalayas, though perhaps extending to the plains of the Punjaub. It has been obtained at Erzeroom, and Canon Tristram says it is common and resident in the open country of Palestine. In North-east Africa Dr. von Heuglin found it to be a winter- visitant only, and it goes as far south as Kordofan and Abys- sinia. It occurs in Algeria and Eastern Morocco. Eeturn- ing to Europe it is common in Spain, but chiefly in winter, according to Mr. Saunders, and in France is sufficiently well known as the Busard Saint Martin. Within the limits thus traced it occurs very generally. Whether the Hen-Harrier of America be really identical with that of the Old World is a point that has been long de- bated, but may be now regarded as satisfactorily settled. The American bird, Circus hv.dsonius, can be recognized by its longer tarsi, and the adult male has the plumage of the lower parts constantly marked with more or less numerous brownish spots. Occasionally, but very rarely, the adult male of C. cyancus exhibits, as Mr. Stevenson has remarked slight dashes of red on the lower parts of the body and under tail- coverts, in this respect somewhat resembling that of the species next to be described, but not to be mistaken for the American bird. The whole length of the male is about eighteen inches ; the bill bluish-black ; the cere and irides yellow ; the radiat- ing hairs on the lore, black; the whole of the head, neck, back, wing-coverts, wings and upper surface of the tail, ash- 136 FALCOXID.E. grey; with the occasional exception of a mottled brown spot on the nape of the neck, the last remaining portion of the former brown plumage; the primaries nearly black, the first the shortest and the lightest in colour, the longest not reach- ing to the end of the tail; the chin and throat ash-grey; the breast and belly lighter in colour, becoming bluish-white; thighs and under tail-coverts white; under surface of the tail pale greyish-white, with traces of five darker bars; the legs and toes yellow; the claws black. Young males are brown, like the female to be next de- scribed, but begin to change to the grey, which distinguishes the sex, in their second autumn ; young males are smaller in size, and have the irides lighter in colour than those of females at the same age. It is probable that young males are capable of breeding in their second year, before they have acquired their grey plumage, as two brown birds, apparently performing the duties of parents, have been shot at the same nesl, The female measures about twenty-one inches in length ; wing from the anterior bend fifteen inches; the bill almost black ; the cere greenish-yellow, the irides reddish-brown ; the top of the head and back of the neck umber -brown ; the feathers of the latter with lighter reddish-brown edges, form- ing a collar of spots on the neck; over the eye a light -coloured streak; oar-coverts uniform umber-brown; the ruff round the face formed by short feathers of mixed brown and white colours, passing from behind the ear on one side round under the chin to the back of the ear on the other side; the back and wings uniform umber-brown; the smaller wing- coverts margined with ferruginous; primaries blackish-brown : upper surface of the middle tail-feathers uniform umber- brown; the lateral tail-feathers dark-brown, barred with lighter reddish-brown; the tip of all the feathers pale fer- ruginous; the throat, breast, belly, thighs and under tail- coverts, reddish buff-colour, each feather having an elongated reddish-brown patch in the middle, with a still darker shaft ; those of the thighs and the under tail-coverts being lighter in colour, and less decidedly marked than those of the body; HEN-HAERIEK. 137 under surface of the middle tail-feathers strongly marked with broad bands of brownish-black and dull white ; the outer feathers on each side greyish-white, with four darker transverse bars ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. Examples of this species are occasionally found of a more or less uniform dull black colour. One such in the col- lection of Dr. de Montessus is recorded by MM. Degland and Gerbe, and another by MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy- Lapommeraye. In reference to our Harriers a writer in ' The Naturalist ' for 1837 (p. 314) remarked that some difference had been observed in the relative length of the quill-feathers : in a female the fourth quill-feather being the longest ; in a male, the third. This notice is here adverted to in order that the relative length of the different quill-feathers in the wings, when referred to in description, or as affording indications of distinction in species, may not be too much relied upon without having due regard to the period of the year at which the birds were killed. In this country particularly, a large proportion of our cabinet specimens are obtained in autumn, the gun being then in general use, and during that period the quill-feathers will frequently be found not to have attained their ultimate relative proportions. The vignette represents the head of the Eingtail, as men- tioned above. VOL. I. 138 ACC1P1TBES. FALC0NID.1-. FJLCOXIDsE. Circus cineraceus (Montagu*). MONTAGU'S HAEEIEK. Circus Montagui\. The specific distinction of this bird was first, demonstrated, in 1802, by Colonel Montagu, who named it the Ash- coloured Harrier; but in consequence of a suggestion made in the first Edition of this work, English ornithologists have xt'.vv gonorally followed the example set them by continental writers and commemorated the discoverer of this species by calling it Montagu's Harrier. ■'■•• Falco cineraceus, Montagu, Ornithological Dictionary, vol. i. (unpaged) 1802 . I Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxi. p. -Ill [1819). Montagu's haeeiee. 139 Specimens of Montagu's Harrier of either sex may be readily distinguished from those of the Hen-Harrier, although about equal to them in length, by being much more slender in shape, and not near so heavy, the average weight of Montagu's Harrier being about nine ounces and a quarter, that of the Hen-Harrier about thirteen ounces ; the tarsus is shorter; the third quill-feather, or remex, of the wing is also much more pointed, and the wings are also longer in proportion, whence probably it is that the flight of Montagu's Harrier is sufficiently different from that of the preceding species to admit of easy recognition at a considerable distance by any person conversant with the appearance of the two birds on the wing : the present being much quicker in its movements and more strikingly buoyant than the Hen-Harrier. In their general habits and in the sort of country to which they are most partial, however, both species are very similar. The food of Montagu's Harrier consists chiefly of grass- hoppers, reptiles, small mammals, birds and their eggs — these last, if their size permit, being often swallowed whole. In proof of its fondness for reptile food, Mr. Kodd has recorded the fact that an example of this species, though its attention was attracted by a trap baited with a rabbit, con- tinued to hover about without pouncing, but, on a viper being substituted for the rabbit, the bird was immediately caught. The nest and eggs resemble those of the Hen- Harrier, but the former is more slightly built and the latter are generally smaller, measuring from 1"72 to 151 by 1"39 to 1*25 in. While the hen is sitting, she is carefully at- tended by the cock, who brings her food for which she flies to meet him, and on his dropping it, will catch it in the air. In this, as in several other species of birds-of-prey, incubation often commences as soon as the first egg is laid, and conse- quently it is not unusual to find a considerable difference in the age of the young, which, according to Mr. Jenyns, are usually hatched about the second week in June. Though at one time the most numerous species of Harrier in the fens of the Eastern Counties, and that which, in spite 1-40 FALCONIDiE. of the changes caused by the reclaiming of that extensive district, continued to breed there later than the others, there seems to be no county in the British Islands where Mon- tagu's Harrier may now be said to breed regularly. Accord- ing to Mr. Mure, its nest, was until the last few years, or, may be, still is occasionally Pound in Somerset, Dorset, Pem- brokeshire, [vent and Norfolk. At Hickling, in the county last named, four young birds, which in Mr. Stevenson's opinion had been bred in the neighbourhood, were killed in August, 1870. Of the other English counties, such as Devon (where Montagu first found it breeding), Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Shropshire, Cumberland and Northumberland, in all of which there is more or less satisfactory evidence of its nests having formerly been found, none have been recorded for several years past, and the species bids fair shortly to become no longer indigenous, though Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junior, reports the capture, during the present summer (1871), of a. pair, with their nestling young, near Bridlington in Yorkshire. Already in seme of the counties where it used to he so abundant, it must now be regarded as an irregular autumnal migrant. Montagu's Harrier has been met with in Scotland, but is of rare occurrence and lias been only noticed there of late years. The report of its having bred in Sutherland, made by two writers, but apparently resting on the same authority, seems to require confirmation. Mr. Eobert Gray, however, mentions a specimen now in the collection of Mr. E. S. Sinclair of Wick and said to have been shot in Caithness, which is probably the most, northern locality on record for this species. In Ireland as we learn from Mr. Watters it has only occurred in two instances, once near Bray and once at the Scalp in the county of Wicklow. According to the best authorities Montagu's Harrier is. or was, a common bird in Belgium and Holland where it breeds. In the western parts of North Germany it seldom occurs though Dr. Borggreve states that it certainly breeds in Mecklenburg and Anhalt, hut Gloger reports it as being commoner in Silesia. From the Scandinavian ornithologists MONTAGU'S HAERIER. 141 we learn that it has been observed during the whole summer in Denmark and is supposed to breed there, but it is un- known in Norway : in Sweden only a few examples have been taken and these in the extreme south, and in Finland its appearance is merely accidental. Nothing seems to have been recorded with certainty as to its distribution in European or Asiatic Eussia ; but from the facts that Mr. Swinhoe gives it as occurring on the river Yang-tsee in China, while Mr. Jerdon says that it is abundant and migratory in every part of India, and Mr. G-urney has seen it from Ceylon, one may pretty safely infer that it is to be found at least in the southern parts of Central Asia, and the Leyden Museum possesses a specimen from the mouth of the Jaik. Mene- tries saw it only in the Caucasus, where it is rare ; Mr. Abbott procured it at Trebizond, and Canon Tristram ob- tained it twice in Palestine. In Egypt it occurs on passage and is abundant in the highlands of Abyssinia in winter and spring. It is also found in Sennaar and Kordofan. Mr. Layard saw many examples and killed one on one of the Comoro Islands, and, although rare, it has been several times obtained in the Cape Colony, and in Damara-land. Loche gives it as breeding in Algeria, and Mr. Drake saw it on several occasions in Eastern Morocco, while M. Bertholet records it from the Canaries. In Portugal Prof, du Bocage says that it is common, and Mr. Saunders that it is resident throughout the year in southern Spain, where it is tolerably numerous. In some parts of France it would seem to be very abundant ; thus, in the Department of the Vienne, near Loudun, M. Barbier Montault states in an interesting account of its habits, in the ' Eevue Zoologique ' for 1838, that he has seen it, at the close of the breeding season, not merely by hundreds but by thousands, the birds collecting towards evening to roost in company ; and it may be observed of this species as of the preceding that it seldom if ever perches, but passes the night on the ground among rough herbage or heather. The length of the adult male is about seventeen inches. The beak is nearly black ; the cere greenish-yellow ; the 1 1-2 FALCONIDiE. irides bright yellow: the head, the whole of the neck, back, wing-coverts, secondaries and tertials, bluish-grey; the secondaries with three dark cross-bars, the last of which is visible externally when the wing is (dosed: the primaries almost black; upper surface of the middle tail-feathers bluish-grey; the lateral tail-feathers white, barred with reddish-orange; breast, belly and under tail-coverts, white with various longitudinal streaks of reddish-orange; under wing-coverts barred with reddish-brown: under surface of tail-feathers dull white, barred with dusky grey; legs and toes yellow; the claws black. A young male, from which the figure was taken, killed while undergoing his second moult, and in a state of gradual change, has the top of the head and the feathers round the cheeks a mixture of brown and rufous, ear-coverts grey; occiput varied with white; the nape, back, scapulars, tertials and upper tail-coverts, lead-grey ; upper surface of all the tail-feathers, except the two in the middle, barred with two shades of brown and rufous; middle tail-feathers, with the outer webs uniform pearl-grey; the inner welts with five dark brown bands on a greyish ground; primaries and secondaries blackish-brown; greater wing-coverts dark brown ; lesser wing-coverts lighter brown varied with rufous, and two or three grey feathers ; chin and front of the neck, pearl- ore v; breast, belly, thighs and under tail-coverts, white, with a longitudinal rufous stripe on the middle of each feather ; under surface of tail-feathers barred with greyish- white and brown; legs, toes and (daws as in the adult. A young male in the plumage of the first year has the head and neck ferruginous, each feather with a median lanceolate patch of dark brown; back and wings umber- brown; wing-coverts with broad ferruginous margins; pri- maries brownish-black ; secondaries and tertials tipped with rufous ; upper tail-coverts white, tipped with red ; upper surface of the tail-feathers with five bands of dark brown, and four bands of greyish-brown; ear-coverts uniform umber- brown; chin, throat, breast, belly, thighs and under tail- coverts, uniform reddish-brown; under surface of wings the MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 143 same ; under surface of tail-feathers dull reddish-white, with four or five bands of brownish-grey ; legs, toes and claws, as in older birds. The adult female measures nineteen inches; the wing fifteen ; the beak black ; the cere dull yellow ; the irides hazel ; crown of the head and nape reddish-brown, with darker brown spots; above and below the eye a streak of dull white; ear-coverts dark brown; back and wings dark umber-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts mixed with white and orange brown ; upper surface of middle tail- feathers uniform dark brown ; lateral tail-feathers barred with two shades of brown ; breast, belly and all the under surface of the body, light reddish brown, with longitudinal marks of a darker colour ; legs and toes yellow ; claws black. In very old females the general colour of the plumage is lighter and the irides become bright yellow. Young females have the whole of the under parts from the throat to the under tail-coverts of a uniform reddish-bay, without any of the darker-coloured streaks observable in the adults. This species exhibits not unfrequently a dark brown or almost black variety, which is the origin of the Circus ater of Vieillot, and has several times been killed in this country. The intensity of the tint varies in individuals. Sometimes the male is of a very dark smoky-grey, and the female of a deep chocolate-brown with a beautiful purple gloss. Mr. Newcome possesses an adult dark-coloured female shot from the nest. Having thus described the last of the British Falconidw, it may be desirable, before quitting this group, to exhibit a representation of the breast-bone, or sternum, of one of the types of the Family, in order to shew in the form and magnitude of the principal bone, and the other bones attached to it, the power of flight possessed by these birds, of which the breast-bone affords good comparative indication. The power of flight is one of the decided characteristics of the organization of the Class of Birds ; and the Family of the FalconidcB includes some of those birds which appear to possess this power in the highest degree of perfection. 144 r.u/'ONiD.K. The conditions necessary to produce this power in its fullest extent are, — large and strong pectoral muscles; great extent of surface, as well as peculiarity of form, in the whig: and feathers of firm texture, strong in the shaft, with the filaments of the plume arranged and connected to resist pressure Prom below. The extent of surface, the form and other peculiarities of the wings, have been already noticed, and the anatomical part only requires t<> he briefly described. A certain degree of weight is necessary to flight,* and this is imparted by large pectoral muscles; the power of these muscles may be estimated by the depth of the keel, and the breadth of the sides of the breast-bone or sternum; as affording extent of surface for the attachment of these large muscles by the action of which the wings are moved. As an illustration of this form, the figure, inserted as a vignette, on the opposite page, is a representation about one- fourth less than the natural size of the breast-bone of a young male Peregrine Falcon, which exhibits the depth of the keel, the breadth of the sides, as well as the strength of the coracoid hones; and the power of flight peculiar to all the species of Falcons is still further illustrated by the form and substance of the forked bone or furcula, commonly called the merry- thought or wish-bone, which is circular, broad and strong, affording a permanent support to the shoulders. This furcula represents the clavicles of mammals. Though the subject of the figure maybe taken to shew the general form of the sternal apparatus in the Falconidce, various members of the Family present some differences which it may not be inexpedient to notice briefly. Thus the size of the foramina or holes pierced in the posterior portion of the sides of the breast-bone varies not inconsiderably in certain * Those who wish to study the mechanics of flight cannot do better than con- sult Prechtl's ' Untersuchungen iiber den Flug der Vijgel ' (Wien: 1846) and Prof. Marey's ' Memoire sur le vol des insectes et des oiseaux ' as published in the 'Annates des Sciences Naturelles' (Zoologie, 5th ser. vol. xii.). In English the essays of Dr. Pettigrew (Trans. Linn. Sue. vol. xxvi.) and Captain F. W. Ilutton (Phil. Mag. August, 1869] may also be mentioned in connection with the same subject; hut some of the conclusions of both the writers last named have been impugned. MONTAGU S HARRIER. 145 species. In the Eagles of the genera Aquila and Haliceetus these foramina usually disappear entirely, each side of the breast-bone consisting of an uninterrupted convex plate, and the posterior portion is somewhat tapering instead of being broader than the middle. In the Osprey (Panclion) the hinder margin is still further altered in outline, and it is possible that this peculiarity may be in some way connected with the bird's habit, as described, of taking its prey under water : for, as will subsequently be mentioned, species whose nature it is to seek their food by diving, and are thereby subjected to a greater or less amount of pressure in pro- portion to the depth of water, not unfrequently undergo a considerable modification of this part of the sternum as com- pared with those nearest to them in general structure, but not so expert in their subaquatic feats. By an extended examination of the different species of Buzzards and Harriers, it will be found that the characters described as necessary to produce rapid flight decline gra- dually. The sternum decreases in size, the keel loses part of its depth and the coracoid bones and furcula become more slight. A representation of the sternum of a Vulture has already been given and that of an Owl will be immediately inserted, to afford a comparative view of the size and structure of the same parts in these Families of the Birds-of-Prey. vol. I. 14G ACCIPITRES. STRIGIDjE STRIQIDAi Strix aluco, Linnaeus *. THE T A W X Y AY I, Syrnium stridula \. Strix, Linnceus \. — Bill decurved from tlie base. Nostrils large. Facial disk large and complete ; ears large and furnished in front with a large, crescentic operculum, broad below and tapering above. Wings short and rounded ; the first quill very short, the fourth the longest. Tail long, concave beneath. Legs and toes feathered. Head large, round and without tufts. The characters and appearance of Owls are so singular that once soon they are not readily forgotten. The head is * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 132 (1766 . f Stephens, l. xiii. part li. p. <>■_! ;18'26). i Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 131 (1766). TAWNY OWL. 147 large, the expression grotesque, the body bulky in appear- ance, the plumage soft and downy. Unlike the Falconidcc, which hunt for their food by day, nearly all the Owls seek their prey during the twilight and probably during the greater part of the night. From their nocturnal habit, the singular appearance produced by the arrangement of the feathers of the face, the peculiar hollow tone of voice, ahd the additional circumstance of some of the species selecting ruins or buildings in grave-yards as places of resort, for the solitude there afforded, Owls have been considered by the superstitious in all countries and at all times as birds of darkness and ill-omen, and by some even as messengers of doom. Thus Shakespear says — ' Out on ye, Owls! nothing but songs of death.' — Richard the Third. The eyes of Owls are large, and particularly susceptible of impressions from light. If exposed to the glare of day, most of the species seem to be overpowered by it, and their eyes are either closed entirely or screened by an internal eyelid. Their flight is easy, buoyant and noiseless. The species vary greatly in size and, according to their several powers, their food consists of mammals, birds, reptiles and occasionally fishes ; while, chiefly among the smaller kinds, twilight-flying beetles and large moths are also the object of search. Owls, like the other birds-of-prey, as already men- tioned, return by the mouth the indigestible parts of the food swallowed in the form of elongated pellets ; these are found in considerable numbers about the usual haunts of the birds, and examination of them reveals the nature of the food, and shews in nearly every case the great services they render to man by the destruction of rats and mice.* But the Owls differ from nearly all the Falconiclce in their feathers wanting the accessory plumule or aftershaft, and * The infallibility of the evidence thus afforded as to the food of Owls is as complete as the way of obtaining it, by those who have the opportunity, is simple. Several German naturalists have made some very precise researches on this sub- ject. The following results with regard to our three commonest species of Owls 1 48 sTiurnn.K. in their oesophagus being of uniform width throughout and devoid of the large dilatation which forms the crop. Further, they possess large coeca, while these are wanting in all the Hawk-tribe sit far as is known. Tin 1 < hvls have usually been arranged in two principal groups, one in which all the species exhibit two tufts of feathers on the head — the so-called "horns" or "ears," and the second in which the head is not tufted. However convenient this plan may be, it helps their classification but a short way, and when it is considered that these tufts arc but superficial appendages and occasionally wanting in species otherwise closely resembling those that are tufted, it is plain that more essential characters must be sought before a natural arrangement of the whole family is reached. Such characters may doubtless he found on a closer exami- nation of the structure which the various groups present; but hitherto no person seems to have placed on record the results of a, sufficient investigation of this subject. It is therefore with some diffidence that the Editor proposes to depart from the arrangement followed in former issues of this work; but, having been favoured by Mr. Salvin and Mr. Sclater with an abstract of their scheme for classifying the Owls, he trusts that his adaptation of it in the following pages will be at least of some service in directing attention to a matter which has long been a puzzle to systematic are thosi' afforded by the investigations of Dr. Altuni as communicated by him to the German Ornithologists' Society during its meeting in 1862 : — No. of Pellets E amined. Remains found. Bats. Bats. Mice. Voles. Shrews. Moles. Birds. Beetles. Tawny Owl 2ln 6 42 2 m; 33 48 18(') 48 (4j Long-eared i Owl 1 25 ... G 35 2( 2 ) Barn-Owl - 7m.; 16 o 237 693 1590 1 1 Tree-Creeper, I Yellow Hunting, 1 Wagtail, If) small species undetermined. - Species of Titmouse. :! 19 Sparrows, 1 Greenfinch, 2 Swifts. J Besides a countless number of Cockchaffers. TAWNY OWL. 149 ornithologists, and may finally lead to more satisfactory results : it being understood that on some points, which are chiefly of detail, the scheme projected by his friends is not strictly observed, and that they accordingly are not respon- sible for any of the statements here made. A cursory examination of the sternum shews that in the Owls this important bone presents two very distinct forms : one, which is incomparably the most usual, wherein the hinder margin is characterized by the possession of two or four more or less deep clefts, and the other form, in which this margin is entire or slightly sinuated. Though in a general way no great reliance is to be placed upon characters drawn from the posterior portion of the sternum, it is thought that in the present case this one may be trusted, for it is found to be combined, in the uncleft form, with others : the absence, for instance, of the manubrial process in front of the sternum and the junction of the broad keel of that bone with the furcula; the remarkable distribution of the feathers upon the breast, which is almost singular among Birds * ; the peculiar shape of the fold of skin, or operculum, which lies over the orifice of the ear ; the straightness of the beak at its base, and the serrated middle-claw. In all these characters the Barn-Owl and its allies differ from other Owls, and therefore, by whatever generic name they are called, they seem to stand as one of the chief groups, and one, perhaps, equal in systematic value to that which may be briefly characterized by the fissured sternum and includes all the rest of the genera. This other group may further be easily subdivided into the Owls which possess an operculum to the ear and the Owls which do not, and it will be sufficient here to state that to the first of these sub- divisions belong the Tawny, Tengmalm's, the Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, and to the second the remainder of the species which will be included in this work. It thus follows that no dependence is placed in this arrangement upon the tufts of feathers — the so-called " horns " or " ears," * See Nitzsch's ' Pterylography.' Kay Society's Translation, pp. 70, 71. 150 STRIGID^E. while the structure of the real car and the form of its conch are regarded as of considerable value ; and, giving due weight to the fact that the power of hearing in Owls is very likely more acute than in most other birds and is of greater help to them in procuring their prey than the sense of sight, the importance attached to the characters therewith connected does not seem to be exaggerated. The difficulties which beset the classification of the Strigidce are not limited to the determination of their natural affinities, but extend to their scientific nomenclature, which has long been in a most confused state. Under the generic term S/ri '■ Linnaeus arrayed all the Owls known to him, but Brisson most justifiably divided that genus, and in so doing fixed upon the Strix aluco of his contemporary as its type. Though most ornithologists have disregarded that determi- nation and have retained the original word for the Barn-Owl, it seems that Brisson's assignment of the term must, accord- ing to strict rude, be followed, and therefore it is here adopted for the S. nl ura of Linnaeus, the Tawny or Brown Owl. The Tawny Owl is a common bird in most well-wooded districts of this country, where its numbers have not been diminished through persecution, ami is strictly nocturnal in its habits, seldom moving or leaving its place of conceal- ment during the day, and appears, more than any other species of Owl, to be incommoded by bright light. It inha- bits parks abounding in hollow trees, thick woods, or strong plantations of evergreens, ami at nightfall issues forth to seek its food, sometimes visiting small enclosures about farm- houses, at others taking a wider range over the neighbouring Holds. It feeds chiefly on small mammals, particularly the short-tailed Held mice or voles, ami the true mice, rats, shrews and moles, with beetles. It sometimes takes small birds, and several writers have proved that this Owl feeds occasionally on fish, and is able to catch species t hat swim near the surface in dee]* water, as well as those that are to be found among stones in the shallowest parts of brooks. The eggs of this species are smooth and 'white, measuring from 1/96 to 1*68 by 1/64 to 143 in. These, to the number TAWNY OWL. 151 of three or four, are usually deposited in a hole in a tree, and, according to Mr. Jenyns, are hatched in April. Mr. (J. B. Wharton, however, has recorded (Ibis, 1866, p. 324) a nest which was placed on the ground, and Mr. Robert Gray says that it sometimes lays its eggs in the deserted nest of a Rook. Occasionally here, and in Sweden not unfrequently, it avails itself of the accommodation afforded by a barn or loft, in a retired corner of which it will prepare its simple nest. For a considerable time the young, covered with a greyish- white down, are fed at home ; they afterwards perch among the branches of trees near the nest, where the parents long continue to feed them, and, until summer is far advanced, the call of the Owlets, sounding like the word "keewick," may be heard at intervals from the leafy shade. In cap- tivity the young of this species are said to be more easily reared than other Owls, being much less choice in the quality of their food. The note of the adults, most frequently heard in the evening and about an hour before dawn, is a loud, clear hoot, by some persons considered melancholy, but in the opinion of others more rightly termed by Shakespear " Tu-whit ! to-who ! A merry note." In the act of hooting, the Owls' throats, as remarked by Gilbert White, " swell as big as a hen's egg." The Tawny Owl may be traced through all the counties of England, but has not been recognized by practised ornitho- logists as existing in Ireland. It occurs also in Scotland, and there, unlike what is certainly the case in England, it is said by Mr. Robert Gray to be becoming commoner, owing to the spread of plantations, so that, from having been a comparatively scarce species thirty years ago, it is now well known in suitable haunts from the Border to Ross-shire, where it breeds, extending its range even to some of the Inner Hebrides, as Islay and Mull. Low includes it among the birds of Orkney that are seen in summer, but not in winter. In Norway, according to Herr Collett, the Tawny Owl is common in the southern and western parts up to the Trondhjem fjord, and has even been obtained so far to the 152 sti;h;ii>.i:. northward as lat. <>7 ; but lat. 64 is the limit assigned for its breeding-range both in that country and in Sweden, where il is, in Prof. Nilsson's opinion, tin' commonest species of Owl. Whether it has occurred in Finland seems doubtful. In Russia, according to Pallas, it is much less frequent than in the rest of Europe, but though seen by him in the southern provinces was never observed in Siberia. Major Irby saw- it two or three times in the Crimea. Von der Muhle and Dr. Lindermayer state that it occurs in Roumelia, the latter adding that it breeds in Greece. Strickland procured it at Smyrna, and Canon Tristram states that he saw many about the celebrated cedars of Lebanon and heard its hoot night after night in the forests of Gilead, where its nest was found. The assertion that it is common in Egypt is probably incorrect, but Loche gives it as breeding in the wooded parts of Algeria, and Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake found it in numbers in caves at Tetuan. In Portugal, according to Mr. A. C. Smith., it is nowhere common, but in the higher wooded districts of southern Spain Mr. Saunders says it is not uncommon, and this also seems to he the case in Sicily, [t does not appear to be found in Sardinia : hut it occurs in Italy and thence in suitable situations and with greater or less frequency throughout the remainder of the continent. The adult male has the beak whitish-horn colour; the eyes large and full; the irides very dark brown, almost black; the facial disk greyish-white, denned by a dark brown marginal lino; top of the head, neck, back and wings, a mixture of ash-grey, mottled with two shades of brown : a descending line of white spots at the edge of the scapulars, and another on the end of the wing-coverts; primaries barred with dull white and dark brown, the wings only reaching half-way down the tail; upper surface of the tail- feathers barred with two shades of brown, the middle pair being the most uniform in colour. The under surface of the body greyish-white, mottled and streaked longitudinally with pale and dark' brown; under tail-coverts white; under sur- face of tail-feathers greyish-white, barred transversely with reddish-brown; legs and toes covered with shorl greyish- TAWNY OWL. 153 white feathers ; claws horn-white at the base, darker towards the tip. The whole length about fifteen inches. The pro- minent pink edges of the eyelids give this Owl a singular appearance. The female is larger, but when perfectly adult, resembles the male in colour. Younger birds are often more ferrugi- nous. The plumage first assumed by the nestlings is drab or inclining to grey. British examples seem to be certainly more rufous than those which are commonly obtained on the Continent, in some parts of which grey birds decidedly pre- dominate in number, if they do not occur exclusively. It may be observed that it is common to many species of Owls to have both a rufous and a grey or brown plumage, and it is not always possible to account for the discrepancy through sex or age. Messrs. Buckley and Elwes mention a " perfectly black Owl" in the collection of Mr. Eobson at Ortakeuey, near Constantinople, which they consider to have been a melanite variety of this species. Mr. Gurney is of opinion that Algerian examples exceed in size those from Europe and Western Asia. The vignette represents the sternum of this species, which when compared with that of the Falcon previously figured, shews a great deficiency in strength. The keel has but little depth, the sides are narrow, while the furcula is espe- cially slender and weak. In some Owls the median portion of the furcula is not ossified, and the lateral portions are only connected by a ligament. VOL. l. 154 ACCIPITBES. stkiciiu: STBIGIDjE. Nyctala tengmalmi (J. F. Gmcliu*). TENGMALM'S OWL. Noctua Ti a ij mill in i. Ntctala, C. L. BreJunf. — Bill short, decurved from the base ; cere rudimen- tary; nostrils nearly circular ; under mandible notched. Ears large, asymmetrical, and furnished in front with a well-developed operculum. Facial disk large and nearly complete. Wings long, rounded. Tail short. Legs and toes thickly feathered. Head large, the asymmetry of the aural region extending to the skull. This prettily-marked Owl was, in 1783, first clearly dis- tinguished from other species by Tengmalm, a Swedish Orni- thologist, in honour of whom it was named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin. Though similar in size, and general appearance to the Little Owl to be presently described, it ran at once be re- cognized by tin; more thick" and downy character of the plumage, and by the length and abundance of the feathers ••■■ Strix tevgmalmi, J. F. Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 291 (1788). t Isis, 1828, p. 1271. tengmalm's owl. 155 covering its short legs and toes, to say nothing of the more recondite differences which a closer examination will reveal. It has no doubt been sometimes mistaken for the Little Owl, and possibly obtained in this country more frequently than it has been recorded ; since the " Little Owl," figured in the folio edition of Pennant's 'British Zoology,' was pro- bably of this species; while that engraved by Bewick and Selby, under the same name, certainly is so, as the Editor is informed by Mr. Hancock who has seen the specimen, killed at Widdrington in Northumberland in January, 1812 or 1813, and now in the Selby Collection at Twizell House. The same gentleman adds that he has had three examples of Tengmalm's Owl all taken near Newcastle-on-Tyne : the first, which was recorded by Mr. Bold (Zool. p. 2765), was shot at Whitburn, in October 1848 ; the second at Eoth- bury, in April 1849 ; and the third was caught alive at Widdrington some twelve years since. In 1836, a specimen recently shot was purchased in a poulterer's shop in London ; and in May of the same year, the late Mr. Leadbeater re- ceived a specimen for preservation which had been shot in Kent. Messrs. Gurney and Fisher (Zool. p. 1305) record a sixth, which was taken some years since at Bradwell in Suffolk, and Dr. Morris mentions (Zool. p. 2649) an example obtained at Hunmanby in Yorkshire about the year 1847. In 1856 the Editor saw in the collection of Mr. William Felkin, of Beeston near Nottingham, a specimen which he said he had received in the flesh from near Liverpool. Mr. Borrer records (Zool. p. 5988) the capture of an example, near Horsham on the 27th of March, 1857, which is now in his collection. Mr. Stevenson mentions an adult female, killed at Burlingham in Norfolk, about the 6th of April, 1857, and now in the possession of Mr. H. X. Burroughes, and has kindly forwarded the further information that an example was caught alive at Beechamwell in the same county, on the 27th of January, 1849, and is now in the collection of the Kev. E. W. Dowell of Dunton. On the authority of Mr Braikenridge, Mr. Gould mentions a specimen killed at Winscombe in 1859, and, lastly, Mr. Boulton records (Zool. 15G sti;ii;ii>.e. p. 9020) ,i fourteenth English example taken at Flam- borough in October, L863. Mr. Robert Gray mentions the occurrence of three specimens in Scotland: one killed in Sutherland in 1N4-7, one in Orkney in 1851 and the third caughl alive on Cramond island in the Firth of Forth in December, 1860. In Ireland it docs nut seem to have occurred. This little Owl inhabits thick forests in Norway, Sweden and Eussia, even in very high northern latitudes, hut though iis eastern limits cannot be precisely stated, it would seem nut to extend very far into Siberia. Dr. William Carte ob- tained it in the Crimea. In parts of Denmark it is said to occur not uncommonly and to frequent the churches. In Holstein, Boie states that it is a regular autumnal migrant, arriving with the Woodcocks. Though local it is well known throughout the larger forests of Central Europe. Lord Lilford saw the skin of one which he was assured had been shot in Corfu, and Dr. Lindermayer states that it occurs though rarely in the northern parts of Greece. Egypt has been given as a locality for this species, but apparently in error, since Mr. G. If. Gray has kindly forwarded the in- formation that a specimen in the British Museum, on which the statement seems to rest, had been wrongly determined. Tengmalm's Owl inhabits the Alpine forests of Italy, Switzer- land ami south-eastern France, while it also occasionally occurs on the Vosges and in the Ardennes. Nol much if anything very satisfactory was known respect- ing i he breeding-habits of this species until Wolley announced to the Zoologica] Society in 1857, that in Lapland it lays its eggs in holes of trees or in the nest-boxes which are set up by the inhabitants for the Golden-eye Ducks; and once established it is not easily made to leave its quarters, being able, it is said, to keep possession againsl a much larger bird. The eggs are smooth and white, four or five in number, and measure from F43 to Flo by 1 '09 by "98 in., an exceptionally small one being only "70 by "68 in. The loud of tins Owl consists of mice and large beetles. Its call-note is said to he a very musical, soft whistle. tengmalm's owl. 157 In America this species is represented by the closely-allied Nyctala richardsoni, which is smaller and not so much spotted.* The beak is yellowish-white ; the irides yellow ; the top of the head, nape, back and wings chocolate-brown, with minute white spots on the top of the head, and larger white patches on the back and wing-coverts ;. some smaller white spots on the lower or distal part of the outer web of the wing-feathers are arranged so as to give the appearance of bands ; tail feathers clove-brown above and greyish-white beneath, with soiled white spots forming interrupted bars ; tail-feathers extending nearly an inch beyond the ends of the wings. Facial disk soiled white ; round the eyes a dark ring forming a band, which is broadest on the inner side; the ends of the feathers extending over and hiding the base and sides of the beak ; neck, breast and belly greyish-white, indistinctly barred and spotted with clove-brown ; under tail- coverts dull-white without spots ; tarsi and toes covered with soiled white feathers, slightly speckled with brown ; claws black. The whole length of the bird is from eight and a half to nine inches. The kindness of Herr Eobert Collett of Christiania in communicating to the Editor a description of the skull of this species, together with an illustrative specimen, enables him to mention briefly the extraordinary fact that the asymmetry displayed by the region of the ears in Teng- malm's Owl extends to the configuration of the skull. It had already been stated by Dr. Kaup (Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. iv. p. 206) that the ear-orifices in the Owls of this genus were asymmetrical ; but, so far as the Editor is aware, no one had suspected that the irregularity was more than skin-deep. Herr Collett's observations on this subject will doubtless be immediately laid before the public, and it would be unfair to the discoverer of this, at present, unique feature in the structure of birds, to antici- pate them here. * The late Sir William Milner recorded (Zool. p. 7104) the supposed occurrence, near Beverley in Yorkshire, of another allied American species, the X. acadica. 1 58 AOCIPITBES. sti:k;ii).i; STRIGIIKK. Asio otus (Linnaeus*). THE LONG-EAKED OWL. Otus vulgaris^. Asio, Brisson\. — Beak decurved from the base; cere large; under mandible notched. Nostrils oval, oblique. Facial disk complete. Conch of the ear extremely large, with a semicircular operculum running the whole length in front, and a raised margin behind ; auditory opening asymmetrical. Wings long; the second quill-feather generally the longest. Legs and toes feathered to the claws. Head furnished with two tufts, more or less elongated. The Long-eaeed Owl, from the variety and beauty of the markings on its plumage, is a very handsome species • Strix otus, Linmeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 132 L7G6). t Fleming, British Animals, p. 00 (1828,. j < Irnithologie, i. p. 077 (1760). LONG-EAKED OWL. 159 and by no means uncommon in most wooded districts. Indeed owing to the general increase of plantations, and especially of those formed of the evergreen firs, it is probably year by year growing more numerous throughout the country. It does not require a large, or even very retired wood, a few comparatively-small but thick trees afford it sufficient shelter during the day, when it seldom if ever stirs from its roost, unless disturbed. It then noiselessly flaps its broad wings and sails away to some other perch, displaying great self* possession, and apparently but little incommoded by the glare even of the noon-tide sun. This species of Owl remains in this country throughout the year. It makes little or no noise, except when young, so that even where most abundant its existence is often least suspected. It feeds chiefly upon rats, mice and voles, but small birds occasionally enter into its dietary. In the stomach of one individual, Selby found five skulls of mice ; and one I examined contained the remains of a Goldfinch. Mr. Gould mentions that one of his correspondents had recognized the remains of the Wheatear, Willow-Wren, Yellow T Bunting, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Bullfinch in the pellets rejected by this Owl, and it possibly obtains these birds by taking them when at roost. The Long-eared Owl makes no nest for itself, but usually takes to the deserted habitation of some other bird, when of sufficient size for its own wants ; or more often rears its young in the old drey of a squirrel. ' The eggs are four or five in number, oval, smooth and white, measuring from l - 78 to 1*45 by T35 to 1'21 in. The young, hatched by the end of April, are then covered with white down, and do not quit the nest during the first month ; when they do, says Selby, " they take up their abode in some adjoining tree, and for many subsequent days, indeed for weeks, may be heard after sunset uttering a plaintive but loud call for food ; during which time the parent birds are seen diligently employed in hawking for prey." The Long-eared Owl inhabits Great Britain from Cornwall to Caithness, and in the eastern counties its numbers receive 160 STKIGIDiE. an addition by migration in autumn. In Scotland, according tn Mr. Roberl Gray, ii is less common nu the western than on the eastern side, but it breeds in some of the Hebrides, though altogether absent from the outer islands of the chain. It has occurred twice in the Orkneys, and Mr. Saxby mentions (Zoologist, s.s. p. 1762) his having obtained one in Shetland in October, 1868. In Ireland, Thompson says that it commonly inhabits old wooded districts in all parts of the island. This species is found in all the countries of continental Europe and over a great part of Asia. It has been received from Iceland, and has occurred in the Faeroes. In Norway and Sweden, according to Herr Wallengren, it breeds as far to the north as lat. G4 , and Wahlberg shot one near Lulea, while it remains throughout the winter near Upsala. It is tolerably common in southern Finland and throughout the Russian Empire to the Sea of Ochotsk. Mr. Henry Whitely obtained it at Hakodadi in Japan, and Mr. Swinhoe says it is more in- less common in many parts of China. Mr. Hume believes it to l>e a permanent resident in the Himalayas, where it occurs from Nepaul to Cashmere, and Mr. Jerdon informed him that it is by no means rare in low jungles near Delhi ami thence through the Punjab. Memories found it in the forests of (ieorgia, and Mr. Abbott obtained it at Trebizond. It occurs in Palestine, but not often, and only in the wooded districts and highlands. According to Dr. von Heuglin, it is a common, but apparently not an annual, winter-visitant to Arabia Petrsea and Lower Egypt. It occurs also in Algeria, but is not marked by Loche as breeding there; and, according to Dr. Bolle, it is found in the Canaries, while Mr. Frederick Grodman obtained a young bird, taken from the nest, in the Azores. In Portugal Mr. A. C. Smith says it is common ; and it is generally distributed and breeds throughout Spain. In France it appears to be the most com- mon of all the Owls. Within the limits thus traced it would seem to occur in every suitable district, breeding as far south as Sicily and the Peloponnesus. In the Cyclades it is a regular winter visitor, and according to Mr. Wright it has LONG-EARED OWL. 161 occurred at Malta. The Long-eared Owl of America formerly, and still by some ornithologists, regarded as identical with the species of the Old World, is now usually considered dis- tinct, and, in Mr. G-urney's opinion, the American bird, the Otus wilsonianus of Lesson, constantly differs from our own in being darker, while, according to Prof. Schlegel, the bars of the plumage are wider and deeper in colour. Brisson's genus Asio, of which the present species is 'the type, takes precedence of Cuvier's Otus, and is therefore here retained, though the latter has been usually accepted. The exposed portion of the beak is dusky horn-colour ; the base and cere are hidden by the feathers of each inner side of the facial disk ; the irides orange-yellow ; radiating feathers of the facial disk on each outer side pale brown, with a half circular boundary line of darker brown ; on the inner side varied with dusky brown at the base, and white towards the tips ; the tufts on the head, an inch and a half in leno-th, are formed of about seven or eight feathers, longer than wide, dark brownish-black in the middle, with the inner edges greyish-white, the outer ochreous ; top of the head between the tufts a mixture of brownish-black, greyish-white and ochreous ; nape, round the neck, and the upper part of the back marked with longitudinal streaks of brownish-black on an ochreous surface; the back, wing- coverts, secondaries and tertials, a speckled mixture of black, greyish-white and brown on ochreous ; primaries light ochreous-brown, barred and speckled with darker brown ; the second quill the longest, and the wing when closed reaching a little beyond the end of the tail ; upper surface of the tail nearly the same but more ferruginous ; the breast and belly a mixture of greyish-white and pale brown, with longitudinal streaks and imperfect bars of umber-brown ; under tail-coverts, legs and toes nearly to the tip, uniform pale ochreous-brown ; tail beneath greyish-white tinged with ochre, with narrow bars of dusky brown ; claws horn-colour. The whole length is about fourteen inches. The asymmetry of the ears in Tengmalm's Owl has been already briefly mentioned, and in that bird it seems to attain VOL. i. Y 162 STRIGIDJi. its greatest development, since the skull itself is affected thereby. In the present species, as figured below, and some others the anomaly, though sufficiently remarkable, is con- lined to the exterior, the skull remaining symmetrical. But even this curious feature has been noticed by very few writers. and by none, apparently, of our own countrymen. Klein in his 'Histories Avium Prodromus,' published in 1750, was the -first to announce it (p. 54). It was described, as it exists in the Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, in the ' Memoires de la Societc Ij.ovale des Sciences de Liege' (vol. i. ]>]>. 121-124 pi. 3), by Professor Van Beneden, who figured both ears of the former. In 'The Zoologist' for 1845 (pp. 1019, 1020) M. Deby again described the 'structure in the latter, which seems to be the first allusion to the subject in an English publication. Later, Dr. Kaup mentioned the pecu- liarity, as observed by him in several species, in his "Mono- graph of the Owls," originally contained in the 'Contributions to Ornithology' for 1852; and reprinted, with' corrections, 1 in the 'Transactions of the Zoological Society' (vol.' i v.), where the right and left cohchs' of the Tawny Owl, the Little Owd and that which is next, to be described, are figured. SHORT-EARED OWL. ACCIPITRES. 163 STMGIDJ2. Asio accipiteinus (Pallas *). THE SHOET-EAEED OWL. Otus brachyotosf. The Short-eared Owl is not only pretty numerous as a species, but is also very widely diffused. Unlike the species last described, which haunts woods, this bird frequents wide open fields, extensive heaths, moors and fens, seldom perching upon trees but resting on the ground. A large proportion of the examples seen in this country are winter-visitors that come from the North of Europe in October, and have in con- sequence been called Woodcock-Owls. There are few sports- men who, when Partridge -shooting, have not met with this Owl, occasionally in companies of from half-a-dozen to a * Stryx accipitrina, Pallas, Reisen u.s.w. i. p. 455 (1771). t Strix brachyotos, J. R. Forster, Phil. Trans, lxii. p. 384(1772). 164 sTi;ii;iiu;. score. It lies close, bul when disturbed will often mount high and seem to suffer no inconvenience from the daylight. Many of those thai visil Great Britain in the autumn pass on, while others abide through the winter and retire north- ward again in the following spring. A few, however, breed in this country from Cambridgeshire northward. Although the fad seems to have been only published in 1833, when Hoy tirst announced it in the 'Magazine of Natural History,' it is certain that before the draining of the fen-country in the east of England, the Short-eared Owl bred as regularly and as commonly in that district as did any of the Harriers. Now there are left but few sedgy tracts suited to it, though nests may occasionally still be found on the upland heaths. The mistaken zeal of gamekeepers, however, in destroying this and other species of Owls, which are probably the very best friends the preserver of game could possess, precludes the chance of such nests remaining unmolested unless placed in the most unfrequented spots. Some eggs taken at Little- port, in the Isle of Ely, in 1864, are the latest in this part of England, which have come to the Editor's knowledge; but in August, 1854, he saw on a dry heath at Elveden, in Suffolk, two young birds, nearly full grown but unable to fly; and in the same year at least two nests were taken in the fens of the south-west of Norfolk. Mr. Eocke (Zool. p. 9687) believes that this species breeds in Shropshire, and from Yorkshire northward to the Orkneys, there is little doubt that it does so with more or less regularity. Sir William Jardine describes two nests found by him in Dumfriesshire, some forty years ago, with five eggs in each, as being "formed upon the ground among the heath; the bottom of the nest scraped until the fresh earth appeared, on which the eggs were placed, without any lining or other accessary covering. When approaching the nest or young, the old birds fly and hover round uttering a shrill cry, and snapping with their bills. They will then alight a short distance, survey the aggressor, and again resume their flight ami eries. The young are barely able to fly by the 12th of August, and appear to leave the nest some time before they SHORT-EARED OWL. 165 are able to rise from the ground." The eggs of this bird, seldom exceeding from three to five in number, are smooth and white, measuring from T74 to T37 by T33 to 115 in. Small quadrupeds and small birds with, according to M. Florent-Prevost, at certain seasons beetles and other insects, form the principal food of this Owl. Montagu found fragments of a Sky-Lark and of a Yellow Bunting in one and Thompson the legs of a Dunlin in another, while the supply provided for some nestlings was, according to Low, a Moorfowl and two Plovers. In the stomach of one examined by myself were a half -grown rat and portions of a bat. Mr. Swinhoe (Ibis, 1861, p. 26) states that an example he procured in China contained a few fish-bones. But undoubtedly field-mice and especially those of the short- tailed group or voles are their chief objects of prey, and when these animals increase in an extraordinary and un- accountable way, as they sometimes do, so as to become extremely mischievous, Owls, particularly of this species, flock to devour them. Thus there are records of "a sore plague of strange mice" in Kent and Essex in the year 1580 or 1581, and again in the county last mentioned in 1648. In 1754 the same thing is said to have occurred at Hilgay near Downham Market in Norfolk, while within the present century the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and some parts of Scotland have been similarly infested. In all these cases Owls are mentioned as thronging to the spot and ren- dering the greatest service in extirpating the pests. The like has also been observed in Scandinavia during the won- derful irruptions of lemmings and other small rodents to which some districts are liable, and it would appear that the Short-eared Owl is the species which plays a principal part in getting rid of the destructive horde. An additional fact of some interest was noticed by Wolley, namely that under such circumstances the Owls seem to become more prolific than usual, and on two occasions it came to his knowledge that as many as seven eggs must have been laid in one nest of this species, so that the statement of Hutchins, cited by Eichardson, that in the Fur-countries it lays ten or twelve L66 sTiMcnu:. eggs, may, though not generally credited, be true after all. Another singular statement with regard to this Owl is one made to Mr. Gurney, by the late M. Favier of Tangiers (Ibis, L862, p. 27), to the effect that in the neighbourhood of that place it sometimes pairs and breeds with a very distinct species, the Otus capensis of Sir Andrew Smith — thf hybrids presenting an appearance intermediate between the two, even to the colour of the irides. The Short-eared Owl is well known in most if not all of the counties of Great Britain, and is a regular winter-visitant to Ireland. It seems to have occurred in Iceland, and at one season or another inhabits the whole continent of Europe and the greater part of Asia, reaching to Japan. In China it has been obtained as far south as Canton, and is by no means uncommon in Assam and British Burma. Mr. Gurney has received it from Singapore. As a winter-visitant it is said to be distributed by myriads over the plains of India, but does not seem to extend to Ceylon. Further westward it can Ik.' traced through Bochara and Mesopotamia and, though not abundant, occurs in Palestine. It is a winter- visitant in Egypt, sometimes appearing singly and some- times in large companies, going as far south as Abyssinia. In the same character also it occurs in the islands of the Mediterranean and in Algeria, and it is found in Morocco. The Zoological Society has received a living example from Natal. In the New World it occurs in ( Jreenland though, according to Professor Bernhardt, a scarce bird there, it is a summer visitor to Newfoundland and to the Fur-countries of North America, arriving as soon as the snow disappears and departing in September at the close of the breeding-season, when it is spread over the greater part of the continent, occurring in Guatemala and. according to Senor Lembeye, in the island of Cuba. In South America it is also found in the basin of the Rio de la Plata, and thence to the Straits of Magellan. According to Mr. W. II. Hudson (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 800), it is generally distributed over and breeds on the pampas near Buenos Ayres, where, owing to the SHORT-EARED OWL. 167 greater extent of land cultivated of late years, and the con- sequent increase of mice, it has become more abundant than formerly. Mr. Darwin met with it in the Falklands where Captain Abbott was informed that it bred, and Prof. Cunningham obtained it in Tierra del Fuego. It is right, however, to remark that the Short-eared Owl of America has been by some ornithologists regarded as distinct from that of the Old World ; but in the opinion of those who have had the greatest experience no constant difference can be maintained. In like manner the Short-eared Owl of the Galapagos has also been described as distinct, but there cannot be much doubt of its specific identity with the subject of this article, of which Mr. G-urney has seen typical examples from the Sandwich Islands, while D'Orbigny states that it occurs in the Ladrones. The head of this species is small compared with that of Owls generally; the tufts about three-quarters of an inch long, formed of three or four feathers, which can be elevated or depressed at pleasure ; the beak is dark horn-colour ; the irides golden-yellow; the feathers forming the facial disk, almost black at the base, but lighter and mixed with brown towards the end, those pointing in the direction of the beak hiding the cere ; the disk surrounded by a whitish border ; top of the head, neck, back and wings, patched with very dark brown ; the feathers edged with fawn-colour ; wing- coverts with a few roundish spots of yellowish-white ; pri- maries pale reddish-brown, barred with dark brown, and ending with speckled ash-grey ; tail-feathers buff, with five transverse bars of very dark brown ; chin white ; all the under surface pale buff, with longitudinal patches of blackish- brown on the neck and breast, and streaks of the same on the belly and flanks ; legs, and toes above covered with short, uniform, hair-like, pale buff feathers ; toes naked beneath ; claws almost black. The whole length from fourteen to fifteen inches. Wings, when closed, reaching beyond the end of the tail. The females are largest; but the difference in the plumage of the sexes is not very obvious. Pale varieties are not rare. 168 ACCIPITRIJS. STIMCIKK. S'JJU<://>.i: Bubo igxavus, T. Forster *. EAGLE-OWL. Bubo in' is J : Bubo, Dumeril\. Bill >h<>rt. strong, curved, c