Head and foot of Cymindis Cayennensis.
Asturina (Vieillot).

Beak convex above; nostrils lunulate; tarsi short, somewhat slender; claus long, very acute.

Example, Asturina cinerea. Description.-Bluish ash-colour; whitish bands on the under part of the body; tail traversed by two black stripes, white at the point; beak blue below; cere blue; feet yellow. Locality, Guiana.

Mr. Vigors observes, that it is among these short-winged Eagles that the greatest difficulty prevails in deciding on their immediate affinities. Being for the most part extraEuropean, and not within the reach of general examination, their manners also being but little noted, and the characters on which we depend for forming our decision respecting their affinities being for the most part passed over in the descriptions given of them, it is only by conjecture that we can assign them a place in the general arrangement. Of this nature, he remarks, is the genus last described. The same difficulty, he adds, extends to several other described species of the Falconidae, which appear to him to belong to the group of short-winged Eagles, although they have been assigned a different locality by the authors who have described them. Among these is the Falco Bucha of Daudin, which has been generally ranked with the Buzzards. Its short wings and lengthened bill, however, seem, according to Mr. Vigors, to bring it among the present group of the Eagles; and its habits, as described to him by Dr. Horsfield, who had an opportunity of closely observing them in the Island of Java, where the birds are by no means uncommon, do not in any respect correspond with the Buzzard tribe. Mr. Vigors would place it, together with F. albidus of Cuvier, near those species of the genus Cymindis which are distinguished by P C., No. 617.

Ilead and foot of Asturina cinerea.

the reticulated acrotarsia, if not in that genus itself. He has, indeed, some doubts whether most of the short-winged Falconida at present placed among the Buzzards, such as F. buson and F. tachiro of Daudin, F. pacilonotus of Cuvier, &c., may not be more properly removed to a situation between the short-winged Eagles and the Hawks, with both of which they seem to have a considerable affinity. There is, continues Mr. Vigors, another group which also appears allied to the present, distinguished by a rather feeble and elongated bill, short wings, and slender, lengthened tarsi, feathered to the toes. It includes F. limnæetus of Horsfield (Zool. Res., No. 6, Pl. Col. 134), F. niveus of Temminck (Pl. Col. 127), and F. atricapillus of Cuvier (Pl. Col. 79.) These appear to be strongly allied, in the opinion of Mr. Vigors, if not to appertain, to the beforementioned genus Morphnus. F. tyrannus of Prince Maximilian (Pl. Col. 73) bears also, Mr. Vigors thinks, a strong external characters. similitude to the same group, though partially differing in

2. Sub-family Accipitrina (Hawks). Beak short, hooked from the base; wings short, fourth quill longest.

'The short wings of the last groups,' writes Mr. Vigors, lead us to the present division of Hawks, all of which, a considerably extensive tribe, are characterized by their wings extending no further than two-thirds of the extent of their tail. The fourth quill-feather is the longest, the first, second, and third, gradually exceeding each other in length. In this division we may observe that the upper mandible, though not furnished with distinct teeth like the true Falcons, has the festoon or prominence that generally supplies its place more strong and angular than is usual among these tribes. In some of the Accipitres this is particularly distinguishable. The sub-family we have just quitted includes all the birds of the present family in which the beak is straight at the base, and hooked only at the apex. We now enter upon the first of those groups where the bill is curved from the base, a character that extends through the remainder of the Falconidae. It may be observed, that this character, which thus separates the family into two departments, was equally noticed as a mark of distinction between the species known to the antients. Pliny, apparently referring to it as a line of demarcation between them, di vides the group into his two departments of Aquila and Accipitres. It is from adopting the same views respecting VOL. X.-2 A

tions.'

Dædalion (Savigny).

Beak short; tursi moderate; acrotarsia reticulated; type F. cachinnans of Linnæus, and F. melanops of Latham. Mr. Vigors adopts the name which was conferred by M. Savigny on the whole of the sub-family, for the present di

vision of it.

Example, Dadalion melanops. Description.-(Adult male) white, flamed with black on the neck and breast; back, wings, and tail, deep black, the last with a white stripe, and terminated with white; there are dots of the same colour on the coverts of the wings; cere and tarsi reddish. Locality, Guiana. The form may be illustrated by the

Head and foot of Dædalion cachinnans.

Astur (Bechstein).

Beak short; nostrils suboval; tarsi moderate; acrotarsia scutellated.

Mr. Vigors observes, that Astur is a title which has been applied to the whole group, but which may be confined to those whose tarsi, moderate in length, have their acrotarsia scutellated or covered with broad and even scales. He considers our European species, Falco palumbarius of Linnæus, as the type; to which may be added F. Nova Hollandiae of Latham, and a considerable number of corresponding species from every quarter of the globe.

Example, Astur palumbarius.

Description. This is the Autour and Atour of the French; Astore (Zinan.) and Girifalco (Bonaparte), Sparviere da columbe and Starviere Terzuolo of the Italians; Grosser gefeilter Falck and Hunerhabicht of the Germans; Goshawk of the modern, and Hebog Marthin of the antient British.

A full-grown female measures from twenty-three to twenty-four inches in length; the males one-fourth, and sometimes one-third less; but when adult, the plumage is nearly similar. The beak is horn-colour or bluish-black; the cere and irides yellow; the top of the head, the whole of the back, upper surface of the wings, and tail-feathers, dark greyish-brown: in females the colour inclines to clove-brown; the upper surface of the tail-feathers barred with darker brown; a band passing

Young birds have the beak, cere, and eyes, nearly similar to those of the old birds; 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-feathers with five bands of dark-brown and four bands of lighter brown, the ends of all the feathers white; wing-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 central elongated patch of dark-brown; thighs and under tail-coverts with a dark-brown longitudinal streak instead of a brown patch; under surface of the wings greyish-white, with transverse dusky bars; under surface of the tail-feathers greyish-white, with five darker greyishbrown transverse bars, the tips of all the feathers white; legs and toes yellow-brown; the claws black; those of the inner toe considerably larger than those of the outer. (Yarrell.)

Habits, Food, Reproduction.-Flies low and pursues its prey in a line after it, or in the manner called raking,' by falconers. If the game takes refuge it will sit patiently on a tree or stone till it moves, or till some other prey is accessible. Food, hares, rabbits, pigeons, pheasants, grouse, and partridges. The female was generally flown by falconers at fur, and the male at feather, but the female was also trained to take the larger winged game, the male being principally flown at partridges. Turbervile says, 'you shal not neede to shew any other game to a goshawke for her first entring than a partridge, because in learning to flee the partridge they prove most excellent; and the first yeare you shall doe best to flee them to the field, and not to the covert, for so will they learne to hold out (and not to turne tayle) in the middest of their flight; and when they be mewed hawkes, you may make what you will; and understand you, that neede to take such pain, nor to use such art 1. goshawke which is taken a brancher as with a Nyasse, for she will alwayes know of her selfe what to doe.' (The Book of Falconrie.) Nest, on a high tree in the outskirts of the forest; rarely found in the interior, except in those parts which are open and free from timber. Eggs three or four, frequently hatched in the middle of May. (Hewitson, errelatione Hoy.) Mr. Yarrell says that the eggs are rare, and that the few which he has seen were uniform in size and colour, 2ths inches in length by 18th inch in breadth, of a pale bluish-white, without any spots or streaks.

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Locality.-Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Siberia, Russia, and Chinese Tartary. (Müller, Linnæus, Pennant.) Very common in France, Germany, Russia, and Switzerland; more rare in Holland. (Temminck.) Rare in the south of England. Mr. Yarrell says the few that are used for hawking are obtained from the continent. Colonel Thornton, who kept them constantly in Yorkshire, procurel some of his specimens from Scotland. Dr. Moore, in his catalogue of the birds of Devonshire, says that it is found occasionally in Dartmoor, but I can find no record of its appearance farther west in England, nor any notice of it in Ireland. A fine adult male was trapped by a gamekeeper in Suffolk in March, 1833; and Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, has sent me word that he received a young bird from Norfolk in the spring of the same year. Mr. Selby mentions that he had never seen a recent specimen south of the Tweed, but states that it is known to breed in the forest of Rothiemurcus, and on the wooded banks of the Dee. Mr. Low says that this species is pretty frequent in Orkney; but as he speaks of it in connexion with sea-beaten rocks without shelter or woods, is there not reason to suspect that Mr. Low was mistaken, and that the birds he saw were Peregrine Falcons?-the more so, as several recent visitors to these northern islands have observed peregrines but no goshawks.' (British Birds.) Prince Bonaparte has noted the goshawk as not common in the neighbourhood of Rome, and as rare in that of Philadelphia Dr. Richardson (Fauna Boreali-Americana) describes e shot in company with the female at the nest on the pl of the Saskatchewan, and states that another appoime

The Falcon-Gentil is supposed to be the female and young of this species, which is the Ash-coloured or Black-capped Hawk of Wilson.

Colonel Sykes describes an Astur (A. hyder) among his birds of the Dukhun (Deccan), and there are specimens of Astur musicus and A. melanoleucus in the South African Museum.

Young Male.-Resembles the female; but the brown feathers of the back and the wing-coverts are edged with reddish-brown; feathers of the tail reddish-brown, particularly toward the base, with three conspicuous darkbrown transverse bands. In other particulars like the female: both have a collar formed by a mixture of white and brown, which extends from the sides of the neck to the nape. (Yarrell.)

Habits, Food, Reproduction.-Haunts, wooded districts. The great enemy of small quadrupeds and birds, and often very destructive to young chicks in poultry-yards in the breeding season. Used in falconry; the best of all hawks for landrails. (Sebright.) Nest. The Sparrow-hawk generally takes possession of some old or deserted nest in a tree, most frequently that of the crow, in which the female deposits four or five eggs, each about one inch seven lines long, by one inch four lines broad, of a pale bluish-white, blotched and spotted with dark-brown. The young are covered with a delicate and pure white down, and are abundantly supplied with food. Mr. Selby mentions having found a nest of five young sparrow-hawks, which contained besides, a lapwing, two blackbirds, one thrush, and two green linnets, recently killed, and partly divested of their feathers.' (Yarrell.)

Locality. Spread throughout Europe, Japan (Temminck), Smyrna (Mr. Strickland), Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and from thence southward over the European continent to Spain and Italy. Common in most of the counties of England, and has been observed in the west and north of Ireland; occurs also in Scotland and its northern islands. (Yarrell.) Very common, migratory, near Rome. (Bonaparte.)

Astur palumbarius.

Accipiter (of Ray, Brisson, and authors).

Beak short. Nostrils suboval. Tarsi elongated, smooth. Acrotarsia scutellated, the suture scarcely to be discerned. Type, the Common Sparrow-hawk, Accipiter fringillarius of Ray: to which, says Mr. Vigors, may be added many corresponding species which do not seem to have any limits to their geographical distribution.

Description.-The Sparrow-hawk is L'Epervier of the French; Falco palombino and Sparviere du fringuelli of the Italians; Die sperber of the Germans; Sparfhoek of the Fauna Suecica; Falco Nisus of Linnæus; and Gwepia of the antient British.

Adult Male.-About twelve inches in length; beak blue, lightest at the base; cere greenish-yellow, the irides yellow; top of the head, nape of the neck, back, wings, and wingcoverts, rich dark-brown-in very old males with a tinge of bluish-grey; tail-feathers grayish-brown, with three conspicuous transverse bands of dark-brown; chin, cheeks, throat, breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, rufous, with numerous transverse bars of darker rufous brown; legs and toes long, slender, and yellow; the claws curved, sharp, and black.

Female.-Generally three inches longer than the male; Leak bluish horn-colour; cere yellowish, the irides yellow; top of the head, upper part of the neck, back, wings, and tai-coverts, brown-the base of many of the feathers white, which, extending beyond the edge of the feather immediately above it, causes a white spot or mark; primaries and tail-feathers light-brown, barred transversely with darker brown; under surface of the neck, body, wing-coverts, and thighs, greyish-white, barred transversely with brown; under surface of the wing and tail-feathers of the same colour, but the light and dark bars much broader; the first six wing-primaries emarginated; the fourth and fifth quill-feathers equal and the longest, the first quill-feather

Head and foot of Accipiter fringillarius

The form is widely spread. Col. Sykes records Accipitres Dukhunensis (resembling A. fringillarius, but differing in certain points), and Dussumieri among the birds of the Dukhun (Deccan). In the South African Museum will be found Accipitres polyzonus, polyzonoides, niger, Gabar, Tachiro, minulus, and rufiventris.

Mr. Vigors remarks that there are some species which seem to be allied to this sub-family and to be intermediate between it and the succeeding sub-family of Falcons, which, from some peculiarities of character, cannot well be appended

to any established genus. They possess, he observes, a shortness of wing which would incline us to refer them to some of the present groups: but their upper mandible, strongly and doubly dentated, presents a character that will not admit of their being included in any of the foregoing genera, in which the mandibles are entire, or where the place of the tooth is supplied by a rounded prominence. These species Mr. Vigors would have wished to arrange in one genus: but they are found to differ in essential points which bring them respectively within the pale of the two conterminous sub-families now under consideration; and he feels obliged, for the sake of perspicuity, to adopt the following genus of which the type is Falco bidentatus of Latham.

Harpagus. (Vigors. Bidens* of Spix.) Beak short. Upper mandible strongly bidentated, lower with a double notch. Tarsi moderate. Acrotarsia scutellated. Third and fourth quills longest, equal. Mr. Vigors observes that the essential characteristic of this group is the double tooth on both the upper and lower mandible. The wings, which correspond with those of the other Hawks, in being one-third shorter than the tail, have the third and fourth quill feathers, which are the longest, of equal length. The tarsi are of moderate length and strength, and have the acrotarsia scutellated as in the latter groups of the present sub-family. The nostrils are of a semicircular form and the cere is naked.

Example, Harpagus bidentatus. Locality, Brazil, and Guiana.

Description.-Length, a foot and some lines (French). Slate-colour above; throat white; breast and belly red, undulated with yellowish; lower coverts of the tail white; tail nearly equal, brownish, barred with whitish.

observed that it agrees in its general form, and with some of the latter, particularly the beautiful group of Ierar cæru lescens, in its colours, and in the general distribution of them. To the latter group indeed it has a striking resemblance, and might perhaps be referred unconditional to it, could we pass over the important character of the untocthed bill.'

Description of Gampsonyx Swainsonii. Above cineraceous-black, white beneath; front, cheeks, sides of the abdomen, and femoral feathers orange; a black spot on each side of the breast.

Beak black. Feathers of the back and scapulars ashyblack, spotted with ferruginous. Lower side and nuchal collar white, sparingly variegated with orange. Primaries blackish, internally margined with white at the apex; secondaries, sparingly sprinkled with ferruginous, beneath excepted) margined with white, beneath white. Feet yellow, white. Tail-feathers ashy-black, internally (the midd'e claws black. Length of the body 93 inches. (Vigors.)

Locality, Brazil. Mr. Vigors says that the following MS. note was appended to this bird in Mr. Swainson's handwriting:-The only individual of this species I ever met with was shot on the Table Land, about 10 leagues in the interior of Bahia, in a direction west-south-west from the bay of St. Salvador. It was perched on the trunk of a withered tree, apparently watching some small birds. The tarsi are bright and the irides hazel.'

3rd. Sub-family, Falconina (Falcons).

Beak short, hooked from the base. Wings long. Second quill longest.

Mr. Vigors observes that this, closely allied to Harpagus by the double tooth on its upper mandible, is another group for which he proposes the name of

Head and foot of Harpagus bidentatus.

Mr. Vigors remarks that Falco Diodon of Temminek is to be referred to this genus.

Gampsonyx. (Vigors.)

Beak short, mandibles entire. Nostrils rounded. Wings short, second quill longest, third generally equal to the second, and internal web of the first and second strongly notched near the apex. Tail moderate, equal. Feet moderate; tarsi reticulated, acrotarsia feathered below the knee to the middle. (Vigors.)

The genus is founded on a small and beautiful Hawk,' writes Mr. Vigors in 'The Zoological Journal,' vol. ii., 'which has been kindly submitted to my inspection by Mr. Swainson, one of the fruits of that gentleman's extensive researches in Brazil. This bird decidedly belongs to the Accipitrine sub-family of the Falconidae; but it is placed at that remote extremity of it, where the species, gradually approaching the Falcons, partially assume some of their leading characters. It possesses the bill of the Hawks, and also the shortness of wing which so strongly characterizes them: but the structure of the wing itself is the same as in Falco, the second quill-feather being the longest, and the first and second of these feathers being marked on the inner web by an abrupt emargination near the aper; while the tarsi also display the character of the same group in having the acrotarsia reticulated. The bird thus exhibits a striking modification of form, at once partaking of the chief of the respective characters of both the Hawks and Falcons; with the former of which it may in addition be

Mr. Vigors observes that the term Bidens is appropriated to Botany, and is indeed a Linnæan genus. +For the sescription of Mr. Swainson's genus Aviceda, the reader is referred

to the interesting work on the birds of Western Africa by that zoologist. Naturalist's Library,' vol vii. p. 104. Aviceda cuculoides, Cuckoo Falcon.

Hierax cærulescens.

'Whoever,' writes Mr. Vigors, has seen that beautiful species, the smallest of its race, Falco cærulescens of Linnæus, now rendered familiar to us by the accurate and splendid illustrations of Dr. Horsfield, will at once acknowledge its separation from every other established genus of the family. Its upper mandible is strongly and sharply bidentated, as in Harpagus, but the under mandible is simply notched as in the true Falcons. Its wings, shorter than the tail, differ also from those of Harpagus, in having the second quill-feather the longest, thus again establishing the affinity of the genus to the Falcons. The tarsi are moderate, and the acrotarsia scutellated as in the latter group of Hawks. From its thus possessing characters in common with both sub-families, it is difficult to say to which we should refer • Hierax, igaz.