\ \,f • -y '^A ^^^ ^ o ^-^ V ^; % 1869 THE LIBRARY BRITISH BIRDS. VOL. I. r r -1^'^ ^ ,-^ ot- HISTORY BRITISH BIEDS WILLIAM YARRELL, V.P.L.S., F.Z.S. FOURTH EDITION, IX FOUR VOLUMES. ILLUSTRATED BY 564 W00D-EXGRAYING3. VOLUME I., REVISED AND ENLARGED ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S., PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY AN'D COMPARATIVE AKATOMY IK THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDOE, F.L.S., F.Z.S., ETC. LONDON: GURNET & JACKSON, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. (Successors to Me. Van Voorst.) HISTORY BRITISH BIRDS. WILLIAM YARRELL, Y.RL.S., F.Z.S. ^^^ FOURTH EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES. ILLUSTRATED BY 564 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. VOLUME I., REVISED AND ENLARGED BY ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S., PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIYE ANATOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, F.L.S., F.Z.S., ETC. LONDON : JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXI.— MDCCCLXXIV. LONDON : PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C. PKOSPECTUS. The publication of the late Mr. Yarrell's " History of British Birds " was begun in July 1837, and finished in May 1843. The merits of the work having been at once fully recognized, a Second Edition was called for in 1845, and then a Third, which last appeared in 1856, but a few months before its author's death. A large impression of each has been sold, and the work has been generally and deservedly regarded as the standard authority on British Ornithology. A New Edition is now demanded, not only by the public at large, but by many who possess the other issues, and a few remarks on the mode in which it is proposed to be conducted may not be out of place. The Second and Third Editions, with the exception of some few though not unimportant additions and alterations (to be presently mentioned more particularly), were, as a whole, mere reprints of the First, which, as has been already said, appeared some thirty years ago. Since that time, it is no exaggeration to say that the literature of the subject has been nearly doubled, while, even since the publication of the last Edition, an extraordinary increase has been made in the knowledge of our British Birds. Very many of the species respecting which little was actually known in 1856, have been traced by competent observers to their breeding-quarters, and their habits ascertained, and, in some instances, minutely recorded. The heaviest task in preparing a New Edition of Mr. Yarrell's volumes, is that of sifting among the abundance of information supplied by the authors as well of independent works as of papers in Natural-History journals, VI PROSPECTUS. and in the publications of learned Societies, for sncli particulars as are most needed to give the more general reader a correct idea of the economy and attributes of the birds which do not permanently frequent any part of the United Kingdom. Such a mass of material as has been furnished in the man- ner indicated, enables the ornithologist of the present day also to rectify many statements made by his predecessors. In no respect, perhaps, is this fact more manifest than in determin- ing the geographical range of species, whether in the fullest sense of the word "British," or only occasional visitors to our shores. It will be remembered that precision on this point was made by Mr. Yakrell a prominent feature of his work ; and, when the amount of information at his disposal is taken into consideration, it must be conceded that he was therein eminently successful. The excellent example which he himself set by adding to or correcting statements bearing upon this important subject, in his successive Editions, will not be lost upon the new Editor, nor will the equally suggestive alterations in the arrangement of certain species be neglected by him. When Mr. Yarrell had satisfied himself that his original allocation of certain forms had been erroneous, he did not hesitate to correct the mistake — as, for instance, the Pratincole and the Phalaropes, placed in his First Edition among the Rails and Coots, but subsequently, with unquestionable propriety, referred to the Plovers and Sandpipers. The Editor, therefore, will not scruple to make such systematic changes as may be considered to be satisfactorily established. He is, however, desirous of stat- ing that, in cases which may be still regarded as doubtful, he will, whatever be his own predilections, preserve the original order of Mr. Yarrell, thinking it a lesser evil to continue a possibly or even a probably erroneous arrange- ment, than to offer a new one which time may show to be no improvement. The lax method, adopted by older writers on British Ornithology, of admitting any chance straggler from distant lands to a place beside the real inhabitants of this country, FllOSPECTUS. vii has been in these days very generally condemned, as tending to confound all correct notions of Geographical Distribution. The Editor, however, does not think himself warranted in rejecting any of the species falling under this category which have been recognized by Mr. Yaerell, but the claims for admission of new ones will be carefully scrutinized. And, that he may not appear capricious in his choice, the Editor wishes to state, that of the land-birds lately recorded as having occurred in Britain, it is his intention only to include those which belong to that great zoo-geographical region of the Old World of which the British Islands form a portion. The scientific names of the birds used by Mr. Yarrell will be retained, for the convenience of those who are accustomed to them, but it is the intention of the Editor also to prefix names in accordance, as far as possible, with the code of Rules for Zoological Nomenclature adopted by the British Association for the Advancement of Science — a code, the chief principles of which were admitted by Mr. Yarrell himself. It is hoped that, by following these rules, a more uniform practice than now exists may be ultimately reached, and even numerous synonyms which in the case of many common species at present perplex the most scientific ornithologists, may eventually disappear. In conclusion, the Editor has to observe, that while on his part no trustworthy source of information shall be wil- lingly neglected, he will be glad to receive any commu- nications likely to be of use in elucidating the " History of British Birds." London, March, 1871. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. ACCIPITRES. VULTUEID^. Gtjpsfulvus. Griffon- Vulture . Neophron percnojoterus. Egyptian Vulture Falconid^. Aquila chrysaetus. Golden Eagle . „ ncevia. Spotted Eagle Haliceetus alhicilla. White-tailed Eagle Pandion haliceetus. Osprey Falco candicans. Greenland Falcon . islandiis. Iceland Falcon peregrinus. Peregrine Falcon . suhhuteo. Hobby . vespertinus. Red-footed Falcon (Esalon. Merlin tinnunculus. Kestrel Astur palwmbarius. Gos-Hawk Accipiter nisus. Sparrow-Hawk Milvus ictinus. Kite „ ini(jrans. Black Kite Naiiderus furcatus. Swallow-tailed Kite Buteo vulgaris. Common Buzzard . „ lagopus. Rough-legged Buzzard Fernis apivorus. Honey-Buzzard Circus ceruginosus. Marsh-Harrier . ,, cyaneus. Hen- Harrier . ,, cineraceus. Montagu's Harrier VOL. I. 11 20 25 30 80 46 63 65 69 74 78 83 88 92 97 103 109 115 121 127 132 138 CONTENTS. Strtgid^. Strix aluGO. Tawny Owl . Nyctala tengmalmi. Tengmalm's Owl Asio otus. Long-eared. Owl 5, accipitrinus. Sliort-eared Owl . Buho ignavus. Eagle-Owl Scops giu. Scops-Owl Carine noctua. Little Owl Surnia funerea. Hawk- Owl Nyctea scandiaca. Snowy Owl . Aluco Jiammeus. Barn-Owl PAGE 146 154 158 163 168 173 178 183 187 194 PASSERES. Laniid^. Lanius exculitor. Great Grey Slirike ,, ininor. Lesser Grey Shrike . „ coll'urio. Red-backed Shrike ,, auriculatus. Woodchat MuSCICAPIDiE. Muscicapa grisola. Spotted Flycatcher „ parva. Red-breasted Elycatcher ,, atricapilla. Pied Flycatcher . Orioltd^. Oriolus galbula. Golden Oriole ClNCLID^. Cindus aquaticus. Dipper Ixidj:. Fycnonot'iis capensis. Gold-vented Thrush TurdidjE. ■ Turdus varius. White's Thrush ,, viscivorus. Mistletoe-Thrush ,, musicus. Song-Thi-ush ,, iliacus. Redwiner 199 205 209 216 220 224 229 233 241 247 251 258 264 268 CONTENTS. XI T Urdus pilaris. Fieldfare . . • • „ atrigularis. Black-throated Tlirusli „ onerula. Blackbird „ torquatus. Ring-Ouzel . Monticola saxatilis. Rock-Thrusli Stlviidj:. Accentor collaris. Alpine Accentor . „ modidaris. Hedge-Sparrow Eritliacus ruhec^da. Redbreast Baulias luscinia. Nightingale . Huticilla suecica. Bkiethroat . „ plioenicurus. Redstart ,, titys. Black Redstart Saxicola ruhicola. Stonechat . ,, rithetra. ,, cenanthe. Aedon galactodes. ITypolais icterina. Whinchat Wheatear . Rufous Warbler Tcterine Warbler Acroceplialus arundinaceus. Great Reed-Warbler streperus. Reed- Warbler schoanohcenus. Sedge- Warbler aquaticus. Aquatic Warbler ncBvius. Grasshopper- Warbler luscinioides. Savi's Warbler Melizophilus undatus. Dartford Warbler . Sylvia rufa. Greater Whitethroat . Sylvia curruca. Lesser Whitethroat ,, salicaria. Garden- Warbler .... ,, atricapilla. Blackcap ..... „ orphea. Orphean Warbler .... Pliylloscopus sibilatrix. Wood- Wren „ trocMlus. Willow-Wren ,, collyhita. Chiffchaff .... „ super ciliosiis. Yellow-browed Warbler Ttegulus cristatus. Golden-crested Wren . ,, ignicapilhis. Fire-crested Wren . Troglodttid^. Troglodytes parvulus. Wren . . . • • FADE 272 276 280 287 292 296 301 305 312 321 329 333 339 344 347 355 360 364 369 376 380 384 389 398 406 410 414 418 423 427 432 437 443 449 456 460 Xll CONTENTS. Certhiidj:. Certhia familiaris. Treecreeper SlTTID^. Sitta ccesia. Nuthatch Parid^. Parus major. Great Titmouse . ,, cceruleus. Blue Titmouse ,, ater. Coal-Titmouse ,, pahistris. Marsh-Titmouse „ cristatus. Crested Titmouse Acredula caudata. Long-tailed Titmouse pANURIDiE. Panicrus biarmicus. Bearded Titmouse Ampelid^. Am.jpelis garrulns. Waxwing . MOTACILLID^. Motacilla lugtthris. Pied Wagtail „ alba. White Wagtail ,, sulphur ea. Grey Wagtail . ,, flava. Blue-headed Wagtail „ raii. Yellow Wagtail Antlius trivialis. Tree-Pipit „ inatensis. Meadow-Pipit ,, spipoletta. Water-Pipit ,, obscurus. Rock-Pipit . ,, campestris. Tawny Pipit „ richardi. Richard's Pipit Alaudid^. Otocorys alpestris. Shore-Lark . Alauda arvensis. Skylark ,, arborea. Woodlark ,, cristata. Crested Lai'k . Calandrella bracliydactijla. Short-toed Lark Melanocoryplia sihirica. White-winged Lark PAGE 468 473 479 483 489 495 499 504 511 523 538 548 552 558 564 569 575 581 586 592 598 604 614 625 632 637 642 BRITISH BIRDS. A CCIPITRES. VULTURIDjE. ERRATA TO VOL. T. PAGE LINE 93, 33, for p. 51 read p. 54. 118, 23, transjwse 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 'friXali read \-riXais. 364, 3 of note, the reference to Naumann' s work should he Naclitr. iv. p. 199 (1811). 454, 6, for Mr. Gould's read Bonaparte's. 493, 4, 5, for Tackzanowski read Taczanowski. 509, 9, dele A. vinacea and. ,, 11, for may be read is. 514, Recent discoveries seem to shew that the genus Paiiurus is most nearly allied to ParadOxornis. Vultur fulvus. Gyps, Savigmjf. — 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, Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1788). t Systeme des Oiseaux de I'llgypte et de la Syrie, p. 8 (1810). VOL. I. B Xll CONTENTS. Certhiid^. Gerthia familiaris. Treecreeper SlTTID^. Sitta ceesia. Nuthfitcli Parid^. PAGE 468 . 473 kJi-lUl C--Litll JS- Alauda arvensis. Skylark ,, arborea. Woodlark „ cristata. Crested Lark . CalandreUa hrachydactyla. Short-toed Lark Melanoconjpha sihirica. White-winged Lark 614 625 632 637 642 BRITISH BIRDS. A CCIPITRES. VVLTURIDjE. Gyps fulvus (J. F. Gmelin*). THE GRIFFON-VULTURE. 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, Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (178S). f Systeme des Oiseaux de I'^gypte et de la Syrie, p. 8 (1810^. VOL. I. B 2 vultijhid.t:. 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, claws 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. I 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 1843 the Admiral was visiting Lord Shannon, at Castle Martyr, and saw there this Vulture, which had heen caught hy a youth on the rocks near Cork Harljour, 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 ' (xv. p. 308), his Lordship " off'ered 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 stufi'ed, and placed at the disposal of Dr. Ball, who has 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 Cape 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 be observed, however, that according to the views of some ornithologists, GRIFFON-VULTURE. O several races, if not distinct species, have been confounded under the name of Gyj^s or Vulturfidvus, and in particular that which inhabits Spain and the north-western portion of Africa, has received the name of Gyps occidcntalis. 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 Vultur'uhe, 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 oi*nithologists 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-Vulture. 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 be 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 Griifon-Vulture 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 {Ofogyps nubicus) appeared, self-invited, at the feast; and before the bones were left to the Hyrena, 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 VULTlIRIDiE. 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 perjjetual 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 of rocks (Ibis, 1859, p. 179), says : — " The eggs appear to be 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 birds 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 addition to the blood and dirt with which they are usually stained. This colouring is dispersed in faint spots of a reddish hue, sometimes all over the egg, but 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 banks 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. 56), " This is the common Vulture of the country, breeding in small colonies in every mountain-range. It lays early in March, as I found some young birds in the first week of April. The eggs (usually one, but occasionally two) have seldom any genuine marking ; but I know of a colony of six where the eggs are always somewhat spotted and streaked." Lack of space renders it impossible here to quote the GHIKFON-VUI/niHE. 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 woi'd NesJier — 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 Gyps fulims, 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- orange ; 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 Vvdiite, 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 Reade, 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. VULTUHIDE. A CCIPITRES. VULTURlD.f.. Neophron percnopterus (Linnreus*). THE EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 'Nea'pUrou j^ercnoj^tcrus. Neophron, Sfivir/nijf. — Beak straiglit, 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 the Bristol Channel, and one of them, now in the possession of the Eev. John 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 * VuUar percnoptcriis, Linn;cus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. I'l'i (1701). t Systcme des Oiseaux dc I'Egyifte et de la Syrie, p. 8 (1810). EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 7 had so gorged itself with the carrion as to be 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 described by Dr. Bree. The Egyptian Vulture is said to be common in the interior of South Africa, but, according to Mr. Ay res, 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, eight 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 glad to see and encourage them, because they 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 VULTURID.E. occurred in Madeira. Tangier seems to be its most westerly limit on the African mainland, and 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 Wolleyaua, p. 1). They are 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*()8 to 2"82 by 2*2 to 1'72 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 i)asses over to Portugal, where the Kev. A. C. Smith fell 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 si:»ecimen from Norway ; it is not, therefore, at all surprising that this bird should have been taken in England. The Norwegian specimen, placed by him in the National Cabinet, was compared by Le Vaillant with his Cape specimens, and he was convinced they were of the same species. Malta, Sicily, Corfu, and Crete, with other islands of the Mediterranean Sea, are, as might be expected, visited by this Vulture. Bruce, and many travellers after him, says it is frequent in Egypt and about Cairo, where it is called by the Europeans "Pharaoh's Hen." In Arabic it is called Itaclimah. This name, with its Hebrew equivalent, Racham, rendered in the English Bible " Gier-eagle," is supposed to be derived from liechem, which signifies love or attachment ; probably, says Canon 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 i^arent 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 iiercnopterus, is a distinct species, N. (jingin'unuis, 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. 10 VULTURID.E. beak to the end of the tail is from tweuty-six to twenty-nine inches. The beak is black ; the cere yellow ; the irides red ; the naked skin of the cheeks and front of the neck yellowish flesh-colour ; 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 band across the middle of the wdng ; the remaining portion of the secondaries white ; the tail is graduated, the feathers of the middle being the longest ; the legs and toes pale flesh-colour ; the claws black. The young bird has the base of the bill 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 quill-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. GOLDEN EAGLE. ACCIPITRES. 11 FALCON ID^E. Aquila cheysaetus (Linnaeus *). THE GOLDEN EAGLE. Aquila clirysaetos. Aquila, Brissonf. — 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 circulai'. Wings large and long, the fourth quill-feather the longest. Legs strong ; tarsi featbered to the junction of the toes. Feet strong ; the last phalanx of each toe covered by three large scales ; claws strong, hooked. * Falco clirysaetos, Linmeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 125 (1766). t Ornithologie, i. p. ■120 (1760). 12 FALCONID.E. 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 1672, 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 breed, 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 new 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 seen in the Lowlands. Indeed, the Rev. T. B. 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 deer-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 m 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 sijlvatica. 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 shaj)e 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 puriilish- 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 FALCONID.'E. is said to have been " as black a* a Hohhrj, of the shape of a GosJiawk, of ahnost the weight of a Goose, rough-footed, or feathered down to the foot, having a white ring about the tail." As regards its occurrence in England at the present day, numerous instances ai-e on record, but it is certain that the White-tailed Eagle has often been mistaken for it; and it is not possible always to determine where this error has been made. One of the best-authenticated, as well as the most recent cases, however, is that pul^lished by Mr. Henry Stevenson, in ' The Zoologist' for 1869 (p. 1863), from which it is clear that a Golden Eagle was found dead at Stiffkey, in Norfolk, in November, 1868. In Ireland, this fine bird, according to the late Mr. Thompson, " inhabits permanently several of the most lofty and retired mountain ranges" throughout the island ; but it is to be feared that since his time Eagles of both species have become far rarer. In the wilder parts of Mayo and Donegal, however, the Golden Eagle probably still breeds, though in the county last mentioned it was believed that a few years since only a single pair remained. The well- known "Eagle's Nest" at Killarney — whether formerly occupied by this species or the White-tailed Eagle — has been long deserted; but it is possible that some of the hilly tracts of the south are still tenanted by the Golden Eagle, whence, and from the more northern localities, examples may wander to other parts of Ireland. Smith, in his ' History of Kerry,' relates that a poor man in that county got a comfortable subsistence for his family during a summer famine out of an Eagle's nest, by robbing the Eaglets of part of the food brought by their parents, whose attendance he protracted beyond the natural time by clipping the wings, and thus retarding the flight, of the young birds. The Golden Eagle is not found in Iceland ; but, with this exception, it inhabits and breeds in suitable localities in nearly all the countries of Europe, from Laj^land to Sicily, and from Portugal to Bulgaria. In Asia it occurs GOLDEN EAGLE. 15 throughout Tartary and Siberia (excepting its northern parts) to Dauuria ; its southern limit so far to the east being the Himahiyas, where, according to Mr. Jerdon, it is found but rarely, and not elsewhere in India. In Palestine it is very common in winter, and occasionally at the same season occurs in Arabia and Egypt, penetrating even to Abyssinia. In Algeria it breeds as far south as the Atlas, while in winter it frequents the Dayats of the Desert. North America is inhabited by an Eagle which, though regarded by many naturalists as a distinct species, and named Aquila canadensis, is, in the opinion of Mr. John Henry Gurney (than whom on this subject there can be no better authority), not distinguishable by any constant cha- racter from the A. chrysaetiis of the Old World. Of this bird Wilson, in his 'American Ornithology,' states that it is found from the temperate to the arctic regions, par- ticularly in the latter, breeding on high precipitous rocks, always preferring a mountainous country. Sir John Richard- son considers that it is seldom seen in North America far to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains. In the whole extent of its range there seems to be but little difference in its habits. In some countries it is less of a rock-haunting bird than in the British Islands. Thus in Lapland its nest, according to Mr. Wolley's experience, is always placed in a somewhat large tree. In the Atlas, a cliff is rather the commoner position, though an arboreal site is frequently chosen. The flight of the Golden Eagle is described by those who have witnessed it as majestic and powerful in the extreme ; and from the great strength of the bird, it preys with ease on fawns, lambs, hares, and other game. It feeds much, however, on carrion, and this habit gives great facility for its destruction. Montagu relates, that " when sporting in the neighbourhood of Ben-Lomond, on the summit of the lesser mountains that form its base, a Grouse was wounded, and flew with difficulty eighty or an hundred paces. An Eagle, apparently of this species, perceiving the laborious flight of 16 FALCONIU.E. the Grouse, descended with rapid wing from the adjacent lofty cliffs before our guns were reloaded, and, in defiance of the shouts made to deter him, carried off his prey." In another part of the Western Highlands of Scotland, Montagu " had an opportunity of witnessing the powers of the flight of this bird in pursuit of its quarry. An old Black Cock was sprung, and was instantly pursued by the Eagle (who must have been on a neighbouring rock unperceived) across the glen, the breadth of which was at least two miles. The Eagle made several pounces in view, without success, but as there was no wood nor cover on the opposite mountain sufficient to conceal so large a bird as the Heath Grouse, he doubtless forfeited his life to the merciless tyrant of the rocks." Mr. Thompson has given the following information on the authority of a sporting friend. " When out hunting among the Belfast Mountains, an Eagle appeared above his hounds as they came to fault on the ascent to Devis, the highest of the chain. As they came on the scent again, and were at full cry, the Eagle for a short time kept above them, but at length advanced and carried off the hare, when at the distance of from three to four hundred yards before the hounds." M. Luighi Benoit states that in Sicily, a pair of Golden Eagles have been seen to hunt in concert for game ; one of the birds gliding over the ground and beating the bushes and shrubs with its wings, while the other remains on the look-out at a moderate elevation. A Rabbit or a Hare, if driven out, is immediately seized, and the prey thus obtained is shared with its companion. Eagles are said to be very long-lived ; one that died at Vienna was stated to have lived in confinement one hundred and four years. Their voice is sharp and loud, consisting generally of two notes, repeated many times in succession. Two birds of this species kept by Mr. Selby "appeared un- tameable in disposition, their fierceness remaining undimi- nished through years of confinement. They did not exhibit any partiality even for the person who constantly attended and fed them, but were as ready to attack him as a stranger." GOLDEN EAGLE. 17 In the menagerie at the Gardens of the Zoological Society there are Golden Eagles and White-tailed Eagles ; but the keepers find the Golden Eagles the most tractable of the two species, and several instances have been recorded wherein the latter have been trained to take Hares and Eabbits. In Central Asia a large Eagle, called by the name of Bergut, Berkut, or Bearcoot, and thought by some naturalists to be the Aquila chrysaetus, is often used for the capture of Antelopes, Foxes, and even Wolves. It is carried on horseback, or on a perch between two men. It seizes the smaller animals by the head with one foot, and by the haunch with the other. The larger ones it attacks on the head alone. Such a bird, when well trained, is valued by the Kirghiz, says Pallas, at the price of two Camels. The whole length of an adult male Golden Eagle is nearly three feet ; the adult female is still larger. The beak is bluish horn-colour, darkest at the tip ; the cere yellow ; the skin of the lore tinged with blue ; the irides hazel, the pupils black ; the feathers on the top of the head and back of the neck pointed in shape, and rufous-brown : the general colour of the plumage of the body dark brown, the chin and throat particularly so ; the wing-primaries nearly black, the second- aries brownish-black ; the wing-coverts reddish-brown, varied with dark brown ; the feathers of the belly and thighs bay ; those of the tail varied with two shades of brown, the ends dark : the legs covered with bay feathers ; the toes yellow and reticulated, except the last or distal joint of each toe, which is covered with three broad scales ; the claws are l>lack, the outer claw of each foot the smallest of the four. In a younger specimen of the Golden Eagle with the basal or proximal half of the tail white, the feathers on the back of the neck were less rufous, and the general colour of the plumage on the body and wings more uniform, and darker. In this state it is the Ring-tailed Eagle and Aquila fidva of authors. White varieties of the Golden Eagle have been seen and recorded. The Eagles of the mountains of Sainte Victoire, near Aix in Provence, have been described as forming a distinct VOL. I. D 18 FALCON ID.E. species under the name of Aqidla harthelemii. They con- stantly differ from other Golden Eagles, it is said, by the presence of a few white feathers among the scapulars. Two of these birds, taken from the nest in 1857, were sent to Mr. Gurney, and one of them, never having before shewn any departure from the ordinary plumage of A. chrysaetus, was observed in 1864 to have the first scapular on each side of a pure white. The Norwich Museum possesses a similar example from Algeria. Young Golden Eagles, before as- suming the fully mature plumage, often have the feathers of the tarsus white, and in this state some ornithologists have been inclined to regard them as belonging to a distinct species. The foot of the Golden Eagle is so distinctly marked from that of the White-tailed or Cinereous Eagle, as to afford the means of deciding between the two at any age ; and the three anterior toes of both species are therefore here figured to shew the distinction. The foot on the left hand is that of the Golden Eagle, in which the tarsus is clothed with feathers and each toe is covered with small reticulations as far as the last phalanx, then with the three broad scales already referred to. In the foot of the White-tailed Eagle, represented by the figure on the right hand, the reticulations are confined to the tarsus, the whole length of each toe l)eing covered with broad scales. The figure of the Golden Eagle at the head of this article GOLDEN EAGLE. 19 was taken from a fine specimen at the garden of the Zoolo- gical Society, where it had lived for eight years. The power of vision in birds is observed to be very extra- ordinary ; and in none is it more consj)icuous than in the Eagles, and the Falconida generally. It has been stated that, probably in the whole range of anatomy, no more perfect adaptation of structure to function could be adduced than is to be found in the numerous and l)eautiful modifications in the form of various parts of the eyes of different animals, destined to exercise vision in media of various degrees of transparency as well as density. The figure on the right hand of the vignette below represents the circle, composed of fifteen bony plates, by which the orb of the eye of the Golden Eagle is supported. These bony plates are capable of slight motion upon each other. The figure on the left hand in the vignette below represents the crystalline lens of the same bird ; the lens being subject to great variety of form in different birds. In the Eagle, the proportion of the axis to the diameter of the lens is as three and eight-tenths to five and seven-tenths ; in the Eagle-Owl, which seeks its prey at twilight, the relati\e proportions of the lens are as six and seven-tenths to seven and eight-tenths ; and in the Swan, which has to select its food under water, the pro- portions of the lens are as three to three and eight-tenths. Birds have also the power of altering the degree of the convexity of the cornea. With numerous modifications of form, aided by delicate muscular arrangement, birds appear to have the power of obtaining such variable degrees of extent or intensity of vision as are most in accordance with their peculiar habits and necessities. 20 ACCIPITRES. FALCON ID j;. FALVONIDyE. ii;iu\f Aquila n^via (J. F. Gmelin*). THE SPOTTED EAGLE. Aquila n/evia. For the particulars of the occurrence of this addition to the ornithology of the British Islands, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Eohert Davis, Junior, who sent me also a coloured drawing made from the bird now preserved in the Museum of the University of Dublin, from which the repre- sentation here given was copied. " This specimen," observes * Falco nmim, J. F. Gnielin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 258 (1788). SPOTTED EAGLE. 21 Mr. Davis, " was shot in the month of January of the pre- sent year, 1845, on the estate of Lord Shannon, and was at the time in a fallow field devouring a rahhit. Another bird similarly marked, but reported to have been of a lighter shade of brown, was shot at the same place within a few days, but was unfortunately not preserved ; both had been noticed during the two previous months sweeping over the low grounds in the neighbourhood, which is near Youghal, and between Castle Martyr and Clay Castle." In the 'Zoologist' for 1861 (pp. 7311 and 7817), Mr. Edward Hearle Rodd records the occurrence of two Spotted Eagles, both immature males, in Cornwall. The first was shot in Hawk's Wood, at Trebartha, near Cheesewring, on the 4th of December, 1860. The second was killed at St. Mawgan, near St. Columb, at the end of October or beginning of November, 1861. This Eagle, very similar in appearance to the Golden Eagle, but almost one-third smaller in size, is a well-known inhabitant of many parts of Europe, and is said to have been formerly used in Falconry. Professor Nilsson has recorded one killed in Lapland, and a second in Scania, while Faber mentions its occurrence in Sleswick. In the western portion of North Germany it is seldom met with, though it has been recorded by Zander as breeding in Meck- lenburg, Further to the eastward it becomes abundant, and of its habits in Pomerania, where it is especially so, Dr. Kriiper and the late Forester Hintz have given many details. It has been killed in Belgium and Luxemburg, and, according to MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye, is a bird of regular passage in the south-east of France, breeding in some of the wooded parts of the Hautes-Alpes. In Spain it is of rare occurrence, and, according to Professor Barboza du Bocage, has been only once killed in Portugal. It pro- bably breeds in Algeria, but, in Mr. Salvin's opinion, is not numerous there. In Lower Egypt it has been observed by many ornithologists to be very common in winter, and Dr. von Heuglin states that it extends along the valley of the Nile to Kordofan, Sennaar, and even to Abyssinia. 22 FALCONTD.E. South-east of the countries of Europe first mentioned, this Eagle appears to be very generally distributed in suitable localities. It is not known from Sardinia, but occurs in various parts of Italy, and breeds on the Appenines, as also in Sicily, where Malherbe mentions an eyry containing two Eaglets lying amid the bones of rabbits and reptiles ; but that which created the greatest surprise was to find beneath this great structure some nests of the Tree- Sparrow, con- taining eggs and young, and that these little birds had no dread in thus establishing themselves close to so formidable an enemy. Mr. C. A. Wright says that it has occurred at least once in Malta. In Turkey the Spotted Eagle is stated by Messrs. Elwes and Buckley to be most abundant in the wooded plains of Macedonia. In a series of interesting articles in the ' Revue de Zoologie,' by MM. Alleon and Vian, on the migration of birds-of-prey on the Bosphorus, these naturalists say that it passes twice a year in numerous bands, but that it also breeds in the lofty trees of the forest of Belgrade, near Constantinople. In Bulgaria it is not uncommon, and is most numerous near Devna and Pravidy. " In its habits," says Mr. C. Farman, " it strongly resembles the Buzzards, generally flying low in pursuit of its prey, which, if belonging to the feathered tribes, it strikes in the air;" and the same gentleman saw a nest in an ash overhanging a stream, which was warmly and softly lined with the blossoms of the tree, and contained one young bird and two eggs. Further to the north, Mr. Hudleston (Ibis, 1861, p. 368), in an animated description of the down-country of the Dobrudscha, says, that Aquila mevia has its nest in the low blackthorn bushes which dot the surface of the open plateau, or even more generally on the ground itself. "I found, or was directed to," he says, " no less than four, two of which were on the ground, under the shelter of bushes ; two were on the bare plain." Further to the east and north-east, it is not easy to trace the exact limits of the Spotted Eagle's range, for the task is complicated by the existence of a larger race or, in the eyes SPOTTED EAGLE. 23 of many ornithologists, species, to which the name of Aquila clanga has generally been applied, and it may possibly be this form which is so abundant in Pomerania. Both forms are said to occur in Palestine, but Mr. Hume is confident that the bird which inhabits India belongs to the true A. ncpv'ia. INIr. Jerdon, in his invaluable work on the birds of that country, says that the Spotted Eagle is found in suitable places throughout India. It is tolerably common in the Carnatic and Malabar coast, but rare on the table-land. Mr. Blytli says it is common in the Bengal Sunderbunds. It preys upon all sorts of small animals — squirrels, rats, birds, lizards, and frogs. These last, according to Mr. Hume, form its favourite food, in quest of which he has known it follow the course of a canal in progress to a district which it had not previously inhabited. The Norwich Museum has a specimen said to have come from Sumatra. The egg in general character resembles that of the Golden Eagle, but commonly seems not to be so highly coloured. That figured by Mr. Hewitson in the last edition of his work measures 2*5 by 2*02 in. The young bird in its first year has the bill of a dark bluish horn-colour, becoming lighter in colour towards the base, the cere yellow ; irides hazel ; the whole head, neck, back, wings, and tail dark chocolate-brown ; the tips of all the wing-coverts marked with a crescentic patch of pale wood-brown ; the tertials, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers the same ; under surface of the body dark brown, the feathers of the thighs and legs varied with paler brown lines ; the legs feathered down to the tarsal joint ; the toes yellow, reticulated for a portion of their length, but ending with four large and broad scales ; the claws nearly black. The young of the second year, as figured by Mr. Gould in his ' Birds of Europe,' is more uniform in its colour than the bird here represented, but has some of the smaller wing-coverts, the greater coverts, and the tertials tipped with light brown ; the general colour dark reddish-brown. An adult bird had the neck, back, wing-coverts, and tail reddish liver-brown ; the head, both above and below, rather 24 FALCONID.E. lighter in colour, the feathers of the upper part of the head and neck lanceolate ; the primaries almost black ; under sur- face of the body very little lighter in colour than the back ; all the feathers white at the base ; legs, toes and claws as in the young birds. The whole length twenty-seven and a half inches, the wing from the anterior joint twentj'-three and a half inches ; the fourth and fifth quill-feathers nearly equal in length, but the fifth rather the longest in the wing. The wings when closed reach to the end of the tail. According to Professor Schlegel, Aquila iirevia can be dis- tinguished by its round and small nostrils from A. clanr/a, in which they are wider and elliptical. The same high authority also thinks that the white markings on the wings are not indicative of age, but simply individual peculiarities, adding, that an example in the Museum of Leyden, brought up from the nest, and known to have moulted three times, retained the spots with which it was originally adorned. — Museum clcs Pays-Bas, Aquila, pp. 6, 7. ■ty^' ACCTPITRES. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 25 FALCON I D^E. Hali^etus albicilla (Linuseus*). THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. Halicvetus albicilla. Hali^etus, Savignyf. — Beak elongated, strong, straight at the base, curving in a reguhtr arc in advance of the cere to the tip, and forming a deep hook. The * Valtur alhhdla (misprint), Llnn;eus Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 123 (1766). t Systeme des Oiseaux de I'Egypte et de la Syrie, p. 8 (1810). VOL. I. E 26 FALCONTD.I^.. upper ridge broad and rather flattened. Edges of the maxilla slightly pro- minent behind the commencement of the hook. No.strils large, transverse, and of a lunate shape. Wings ample ; the fourth quill-feather the longest. Legs having the tarsi half -feathered ; the front of the naked part scutellated, and the sides and back reticulated. Toes divided to their origin ; the outer one versa- tile. Claws strong and hooked, grooved beneath ; that of the hind toe larger than that of the inner, which again exceeds that of the others. As a British species the White-tailed, Cinereous or Sea- Eagle, is much more abundant than the Golden Eagle, and on some j)arts of the coast of these islands is not of rare occurrence. It chiefly frequents the neighbourhood of the sea, whether the shore be low and bordered by sand-hills, or by high and rocky cliffs. In either case it keeps a look-out from some elevation, and is equally ready to seize ground- game, fowl, or fish. Carrion and oftal also are very attractive to it, but this taste does not hinder it from evincing a par- tiality for fawns, as its habit of resorting to deer-parks and forests shows. It has been taken in most districts of England, and even very near London, though less frequently in the mid- land than in the maritime counties. On the east and south-east coast, though not numerous, it may be regarded as a regular autumn and winter visitant ; not that it confines itself to the sea-board, but haunts also the larger waters and the exten- sive rabbit-warrens of the interior, Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in the ' Zoologist ' for 1846, observe that " when they appear on the coast, the birds of this species are con- stantly followed and mobbed by flocks of Gulls, and that when they come inland they are similarly accompanied by Rooks." These visitants are almost invariably in immature plumage, and Mr. Stevenson, in his excellent ' Birds of Norfolk,' says that in no instance has he known the adult to occur in that county, where Sir Thomas Browne, writing two hundred years ago, speaks of the not unusual appear- ance of the " halyoitus, or fen eagles." Indeed, in former times, this species must have been far more abundant in England than at present, for there is good reason for believ- ing that it bred in many stations around the kingdom. To it, probably, belonged the Eaglet which, in Warner's ' Isle of Wight,' is said to have been taken from the Culver Cliff WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 27 SO lately as 1780, as well as the uest which Dr. Moore men- tions as having formerly existed on Dewerstone Rock, near Dartmoor. Willughby speaks of an eyry, certainly a Sea- Eagle's, in Whinfield Park, Westmoreland, and in 1692 Aubrey was told that Eagles "do breed in the parish of Brampton," in the same county. Dr. Heysham, in Hutchin- son's ' Cumberland,' published in 1794, says that in his day this species bred almost every year near Keswick and Ullswater, and in that district, in July, 1835, Mr. Thomp- son says he saw two Eagles on the same day. Mr. A. G. More, whose elaborate papers (in ' The Ibis ' for 1865), on the "Distribution of Birds in Great Britain," are full of original information on that interesting subject, learnt from Mr. Crellin that a pair of Eagles used to breed in the high clifts of the Isle of Man until about fifty years previously, when they were destroyed in a snow-storm. In the South of Scotland the Sea-Eagle used to breed in Dumfriesshire and East Galloway, on Ailsa Crag in the west, and on the Bass Eock in the east, but it seems now to be quite extirpated from those localities, though still found breeding in the Highlands and Islands, its eyry being com- monly placed in the high cliffs of the coast ; but when it establishes itself inland, it is generally upon a rock or island in the middle of a lake. '• Here it builds," says Wolley, " upon the ground or in a tree, a nest whose con- struction does not at all differ from that of the Golden Eagle, there being always in it a certain amount of Luzula sylvatlca. The tree need by no means be a large one : I have seen two nests of different years, in separate islands in one loch, each only about four feet from the ground, in very small trees." This accurate observer adds, from his own experience in the Highlands, Orkneys and Shetlands, a great number of further particulars respecting the many nests that came under his notice, which may be found at length in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' but cannot be conveniently quoted here. Mr. Eobert Gray also, in his * Birds of the West of Scotland,' gives many more interesting details of numerous eyries in the Hebrides, as well as on the mainland, carefully 28 FALCONIUyE. refraining, in the interest of the 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 on which the Sea-Eagle there maintained its position ; but it is much to be feared, from the unrelenting destruction of the species which has been carried on for some years past, that a very different story would now have to be told by any person as Avell- 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 {Halmetus leAicoce])lialus) ,^' but it is very common in Greenland, remaining throughout the j^ear, 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 Ftero Isles, according to Herr H. C. Miiller, 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 abvmdant 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 tliought to occur in Europe, and oven in Ireland (Zoologist, 1867, p. 562), but on no good evidence. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. ^9 seem to have been defined. In the extreme north-east of that continent, and in the Aleutian Islands, Tlalucetus alhic'dla 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 CEland 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 Ljimmergeier (GyjKietus barhatus). The representation of the White-tailed Eagle here given Avas 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. Robert Gray a pure white variety in the Museum at Dunrobin. 30 A CCIPITRES. FALCON I Dyl*: FA LCONIDJ^.. Pandion hali/T':etus (Liniux3us*). THE OSPREY, OPi FISHING HAWK. Pandion haVufrinH. Pandion, .SVrcjV/j///t.--Re;ik short, strong, rounded, and lu'oad ; cutting edjje nearly straight. Nostrils oblong-oval, ohlique. 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 jiointed 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 the particular food it is known most to delight in. The manner in which the Osprey seeks and obtains its prey * l-'alcij ItalUctus, Liuuccus, Syst. Nat. Kd. 12, i. p. 129 (17(!t)). t Systenie des Oiseaux de I'Egypte et de la Syrie, p. 9 (1810). OSPREY. 3 1 has been admirably described b}' 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, Xew York, three hundred nests were counted. The old birds were rearing their young close together, living as peaceably as so many Rooks, and were equally harmless towards other birds. " When looking out for its prey," says Sir John Richardson, "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 oft" in its claws ; or it not unfrequently, on the fish mo\'ing 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 wdngs; 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 gi*eat depth." Though this last remark is no doubt true, it may be obseiwed 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 32 FALCONID.E. was given to it, was observed to seize it across the body, placing the inner and outer toes at right angles with the middle and hind toes, and digging in the claws, held the fish most firmly by four opposite points ; not relaxing its hold or altering the position of the toes, but picking out the portions of flesh from between them with great dexterity. The Osprey makes a large nest, sometimes on high trees, at others on rocky islets, or about old ruins in lakes. When thus placed, it 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 other compact materials ; the summit is of moss, very flat and even, and the cavity occu- pies a comf)aratively 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*68 by 1*22 inches. They are generally hatched at the end of May or in June. During the period of incubation, the male watches near, catches fish for the female, and brings the food to the nest : she therefore seldom quits the eggs, and then only for a very short interval. The parents feed the young till they are fully able to provide for themselves, and have been seen to supply them with fish long after they had left the nest, and both were flying about on the wing together. The old birds rear but one brood in the year. The Osprey does not winter in Great Britain, but at other seasons has been obtained in almost every maritime county, while it not unfrequently occurs as far inland as Oxfordshire and Shropshire. On the east and south coast of England not a year goes by but it is seen, and too often killed, on its passage in spring or fall. Mr. Stevenson remarks, that whereas not long ago in Norfolk it used to occur most OSPRKY. 33 generally at the latter season, it now appears most generally at the former, and he ascribes this change to the great destruction of the species in Scotland, which has of late years stopped the suj^ply of young birds that would have been otherwise bred in that country and migrated southward in autumn. The spring visitants, which are usually birds of the preceding year, often protract their stay as late as June, but there is no well-authenticated instance of the Osprey having bred in this or any other part of England. In Christchurch Bay the bird is called the " Mullet-Hawk," and the figure of the bird here given represents it with a Grey Mullet under its foot. In Scotland, Sir William Jardine, writing in 1832, said : " A pair or two may be found about most of the Highland lochs, where they fish, and, during the breeding season, build on the ruined towers so common on the edges or insulated rocks of these wild waters. The nest is an immense falnic of rotten sticks — Itself a burden for the tallest tree, and is generally placed, if such exists, on the top of the chimney, and if this be wanting, on the highest summit of the building. An aged tree may sometimes be chosen, but ruins are always preferred, if near. They have the same propensity of returning to an old station with those of America ; and if one is shot, a mate is soon found, and brought to the ancient abode. Loch Lomond, Loch Awe and Killchurn Castle, and Loch Menteith, have been long breeding-places." All this is now changed. Twenty years since, between 1849 and 1851, Mr. Wolley found that, owing to the destruction of their occupants, most of the breeding-places named by former observers were deserted ; the only exceptions being a few nests, in the northern counties of Sutherland and Inverness, described by Mr. St. John, in visiting one of which Mr. Wolley nearly lost his life. Some years passed, and it came to be believed among naturalists that the Osprey as a native bird had been thoroughly rooted out ; but, in ' The Ibis ' for 1865, Mr. VOL. I. F 34 fat,conid,t;. Rocke stated that the species bred every year in Inverness, whence Lord Hill had several times received the young, hut finding it impossible to rear them, he had requested that in future they might not be disturbed. About this time also information reached Mr. Joseph "Wolf, the accomplished zoological artist, that a second spot in another quarter was still tenanted ; and lately Mr. Robert Gray has announced that in 1867 there were three or four strictly protected breeding stations in Ross-shire, and that he has authority for believing that one in the south-west of the kingdom is yet used. It thus appears that there is still a sufficient number left to stock the whole of Scotland, and it may be hoped that the efforts of those who are anxious for this species to retain its rank as a native of our island will meet with success. In Ireland, in the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands, the Osprey seems to have never occurred but as an accidental stranger. It does not visit either Iceland or Greenland, but there are comparatively few parts of the globe in which it is not found ; for, though many ornithologists have described the " Fish-Hawks " of America and Australia as distinct, under the names respectively of Pandion Caroline nsls and P. leucocephaliis, Professor Schlegel and Mr. Gurney have recorded their opinion (in which they have been followed by authorities so high as Drs. Hartlaub and Finsch), that there is but one and the same species all the world over, and on this view it seems that the Osj)rey is the most cosmopolitan of the birds-of-prey. It is abundant throughout North America southward, from lat. 60°, and breeds on the Cays of Honduras ; it yearly visits the West Indies, and is recorded from Brazil by Prince Max and Natterer — the last of whom met with it so far in the interior as the middle of the province of Mato Grosso. Mr. Gurney considers examples from the Atlantic side of the continent to be larger than those from elsewhere, and adds, that one of the smallest he has seen is from Nootka Sound. It occurs in some only of the islands of the Pacific (the Isle of Pines and the Exchequer group, for example), and not at all OSPREY. 35 in New Zealand ; but in Tasmania Mr. Gould says he him- self shot it in Kecherche Bay, at the extreme south of that island, though, in his opinion, the bird which is found there and in Australia is sj^ecifically distinct — the P. le ncoaylial ii s jnat mentioned. He further states that Mr. Gilbert discovered it breeding at Swan River and at Port Essington. Thence it extends northward to New Guinea, where that enterprising and philosophical naturalist Mr. Wallace obtained it, and to most if not all of the islands of the Malay and Indian Archi- pelagos — Ceram, Celebes, Borneo, and Java. It has not been recorded from the Philippines, but Mr. Swinhoe says it is abundant in Formosa, and it is met with in Japan. So far as our knowledge is at all complete, it extends throughout the continent of Asia, and in India it is spread, according to Mr. Jerdon, all over the country, and breeds there. It is also generally dispersed throughout Africa, from Natal north- wards, along both east and west coasts, and the course of the larger rivers. Dr. von Heuglin found it breeding on the Dahalak islets in the Pied Sea. Returning to Europe, it occu- pies every suitable station from Greece and Spain, where it breeds — sometimes on sea-cliifs, as at Gibraltar, — to Lapland. The Osprey measures about twenty-two inches in length. The beak is black, the cere blue, the irides yellow ; the top of the head and nape of the neck whitish, streaked with dark brown, the feathers elongated. The upper surface of the body and wings dark brown, often with a purple gloss ; the ends of the primaries black ; the uj^per surface of the tail waved with two shades of brown ; the chin and throat white ; across the upper part of the breast a light brown band. The belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, white ; under surface of the wing white at the axilla, brown on the outer edge ; under surface of the primaries dark brown, the shafts white ; under surface of the tail barred with greyish- brown on a white ground : the legs and toes blue ; the toes partly reticulated, but with a few broad scales near the end, their under surface covered with short, sharp spines : claws long, all of nearly uniform length, and solid, — that is, not grooved underneath ; their colour black. 36 ACVIPITRES. FALCONIU^. FALCONID.E. Falco candicans, J. F. Gmelin*. THE GREENLAND FALCON. Falco gyrfalco (in part)f. Falco, LinmeusX. — Beak slioit, 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. No question in ornithology perhaps has been so much dis- ■" Syst. Nat. i. p. 275 (1788). f Not Falco 'jyrfalco, Linnaeus. :J: Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 124 (176G). GREENLAND FALCON. 37 cussed as that which rehites 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 Gmelin's edition of Linnseus'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 gj/i;falco 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. (jra'nlandicns, 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.i\ been presumed to have their respective homes mainly, though not, as will presently be seen, exclusively, in Greenland and Iceland. In 1838, Mr. Hancock brought the matter before the British Association, at its meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; but in the paper which he then read (Annals of Natural History, ii. p. 241), he was led, as Brelim before him had been, into the error of confounding the 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 traditiois 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 sui">posing that the colours of the plumage materially alter at any suc- ceeding moult. The feathers become faded or bleached with rTREENr,AND FALCON. 39 time, but they are thrown off every year, and fresh ones take their phice, 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 lon- gitudinal 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 well 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 FALCONID.E. 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 more remote from the place of their birth. They are, no doubt, driven away by their parents, as is commonly the habit of birds-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 65^°. 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 rose 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, but that this bird, like the Owl just men- tioned, is well adapted, " from the whiteness of its plumage, GHtiENLAND 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 oul^^, 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. 75|° N., 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. Faho 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 FALCONIDiE. travels. It has very probably occurred on the continent of Europe, but, oAving to the way in which it has been con- founded with the cognate forms, the point cannot at j^resent be decided. The same confusion renders useless many of the records of the appearance of large Falcons in the United Kingdom ; but 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. Ptodd, as stated in the second edition of his ' List of British Birds ' (but said by Mr. Brooking Howe 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 Avhite 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 Islay, in February, 1838, 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 GREENLAND 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 .Ross-shire, and that in 1850 Messrs. St. John and Hancock saw a Greenland Falcon near Elgin. On the 3rd of March, 18G6, 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 iu 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 2-12 by 1-83 to 1-75 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 FALCONID.E. and most magnificent of tlie many works relating to the subject — quotes (p. 77) from Madox's ' History of the Ex- chequer ' (London : 1701, p. 186) a passage to the effect that in the fifth year of King Stephen's reign, about 1139, one Outi of Lincohi had to pay a fine of one hundred Norwegian Hawks, and one hundred " Girfals," of which last it was stipulated that six were to be white ; and later, as appears from several passages in Rymer'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 Gerofalcones ; " and this same Magnus on his death-bed, in 1280, 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 flights of Falcons come over from Greenland [to Iceland] and are chiefly white." The adult specimen of the Greenland 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 it from Iceland or Greenland, and had used it for many years in taking Hares and Rabbits ; but these large Falcons were 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 that in both forms the plumage is subject to great variation in markings and tint, and this variation is, subject to the rules GHEENLANI) FALCOxNf. . 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 ACCIPJTRES. FALCONID^. FALCON ID. E. Falco islandus, J. F. Gmelin*. THE ICELAND FALCON. Falco (/yifalco (in part)!. The chief diflerences between the subject of the preceding article and the Iceland Falcon have therein been succinctly mentioned. It remains to point out the characters which distinguish the latter from the true Gyr-Falcon of the Scan- dinavian Peninsula, and probably of countries further to the eastward. In immature plumage the two birds greatly re- * Syst. Nat. i. p. 271 (1788). t Not Falro f/i/rfafco, Liiina:>us. ICELAND FALCON. 47 semLle 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 suhject to a considerahle 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 Gyr-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. Nat. Hist. vi. p. 108) some other differences. The Icelander, he says, rather exceeds the Gyr-Falcon of Norway 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. gyrfalco 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 FALC0N1D.E. apj)aratus 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 has an average length of 3*65608 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 rock bordering the numerous lakes, Avhich are thronged during the summer by innumerable water-fowl, and thereby securing a plentiful supply of food for 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. Most of the young, however, wander southward at that season, and examples annually visit the Fiei'oes, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Holland. In the British Islands, more 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 be 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 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 Vallay, one of the outer Hebrides, in September, 1865. This bird is in the collection of Dr. Dewar of Glasgow. Another, a fine male, Avas shot in the October of the preceding year in North Uist, 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 Glenclaruel, 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 captui.'e 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 luver- broome, in Ross-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 Richardson's account, it is not uncommon in the Fur-Countries, where it, as well as Faico 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 River indifferently on trees* and cliffs. The plumage of specimens from this territory trans- mitted by that naturalist to England for comparison, differs * In Lapland Falro f/yrfalco, though usually breeding on cliffs, occasionally has its nest in a tree. — Ootheca Wolleyana, pp. 95, 96. VOL. I. H 50 FALCON I U.E. only from that of Icelandic examples in being slightly darker (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 384) ; but the British Museum contains an immature specimen from Kotzebue Sound, which is as deeply coloured as the Labrador birds, and might at first sight be taken for a Gyr-Falcon. Whether Falco 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, were at 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 of August, and from one of them he took an addled eg^^. 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 July, had already left it and sat near by. The old birds flew 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, Avhich 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 1-91 to 1'72 in. Modern falconers do not appear to value the Icelander so ICELAND FAIXON, 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 52 falconidtE. this tint fully. The claws are of a dark horn-colour, almost black. The irides are dark. The young, also figured in the woodcut, resemljle the old as to the head, hut 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, and, except for the dirty or ochreous-white border of each feather, would be of an uniform dull brown. The quills are much the same as in the adult, but 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 of 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. PKKEGRINE FALCON. A CCIPITRES. 53 FALCON I D.F,. Falco peregrinus, J. F. Gmelin*. THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 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 * 8vst. Nat. i. p. 272 (178S). 54 falconidtE. 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, that 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 hand, 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 sport has now subsided, is well known, and though it will doubt- less for a long time number some votaries in these islands, the change which 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 days of Falconry may be restored. The flight of the Heron to his home, when the best oppor- tunity is aff"orded 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 Rook affords the best and surest sport, but Rook- hawking requires an open country, devoid of trees which may shelter the quarry, and the custom of planting has now become general, and has 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 by 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 days, 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 Rooks : 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 FALCONIDyy.. frequently Hown at Partridges, and sometimes at Magpies. The youug of the year, on account of the red tinge of their plumage, are called, the female, a Red Falcon, and the male, a Red Tiercel, to distinguish them from those which have accomplished their first moult. Eyas, or Nyas, is the name of a youug 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 over a moult, they were then called Intermewed Hawks. The term Geutil Falcon seems to have often had a general rather than a particular meaning, and the bird so called by Pennant is certainly a Gos-Hawk, while the Lanner of the same author is a youug female of the present species, at which ao-e it bears some resemblance to the true Lanner, Falco lananus, 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 be seen in the greatest perfection at Didlingtou in Norfolk, the seat of Colonel Wilson.* This heronry is situated on 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 ffo. The heron disarorses his food when he finds that Professor Schlegel in his great work has shown this derivation to be an error, and the naine appears to have been given from the old belief that each nest contained three young birds, of which two were females and the third and smallest a male. — Traite de Fauronncrie, 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 he 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 diff"erent 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 hawdi 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 w4iich 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 oft" both together." * In illustration of the habit of the quarry to "take down wind," Mr. W. Aldis Wright, one of the editors of the ' Cambridge Shakespear,' has 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-noi'th-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 notable easily to tell the Hawk from the Heron. When 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. I 58 FALCONTD/E. So bold as well as rapid is the Peregrine Falcon, that it has frequently interfered and robbed the sportsman of his game in the manner described under the article " Golden Eagle," of which instances are related by Selby and others. But 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 ; but 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 those of the last species. Some are uniformly suffused with a brick-red, but 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 2-2 to 1-77 by 1-74 to 1-48 in. A nest in Sutherland, de- scribed by Wolley, was on a little platform, some four feet square, in a comparatively low rock with a good deal of vegetation, including ivy, upon it. The bare place for the nest 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 construct the nest with, and also many little bits of stone, * The persistency with which many bircls-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 on a hill called Avasaxa in Finland is mentioned by the French astronomer Maupertuis, as having been observed by him in the year 1736. In 1799 it was rediscovered by Skji'ddebrand and Acerbi. In 1853 Wolley found it tenanted, and, by examining the remains of a young bird lying in or near the nest, proved that it belonged to this species. PEREGRINE FALCON. 59 apparently from the rock itself. The presence of birds' bones in or around the nest seems to be the rule, and upon the top of the cliffs near St. Abb's Head, where Selby visited a nest, he noticed, scattered in great profusion, the castings of the Falcons. Those examined were almost wholly com- posed of the bones and feathers of Gulls and other water- birds, but others were mixed with the feathers of Partridges and the bones of Rabbits and Leverets. Falcons, and probably all birds-of-prey which feed on animals covered with feathers or fur, and thus swallow a quantity of indigestible matter, relieve themselves by throw- ing it up in the form of castings, which are oblong balls, consisting of the feathers or hair and bones forcibly com- pressed together. This habit of reproducing from the stomach the remains of the last meal is common to the Shrikes, the Swallows and most of the insectivorous birds which feed on Coleopteva, or those insects possessed of strong and hard external wing-cases. In like manner also the Crows, when they have been feeding upon corn, reject pellets consisting of the husks. This species has been not inaptly termed percgrinus, since it has been found in very distant parts of the world ; though the term was originally applied by the older authors to the young birds on their southward migration in autumn. In this country it still breeds, chiefly on the cliff's of the sea- coast throughout the south of England from Cornwall to Kent. Formerly there was annually a nest in the cliff" at Hunstanton, and one in the steeple of Corton Church in Suffolk, and it is registered by Mr. More as breeding until a few years ago in the district of the Severn, where, indeed, it may possibly still be found as an occasional permanent inhabitant. On the coast of Wales, particularly in the south-west and north of the Principality, it may be regarded as breeding regularly ; and again from Yorkshire northward to the Shetlands, but it is far more thinly scattered in the south than in the north of Great Britain, and is not at all unfrequent on the rocky headlands of the north and west coasts. In the mountainous parts of this island, the Pere- 60 FALCONID^. grine Falcon is, however, by no means restricted to the neighbourhood of the sea, but breeds on sites in the interior, provided that they be sufficiently adapted from their impreg- nability and resources. The same was, if it is not now, the case 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 migi-ants 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 aj^pear 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 sj^ring 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 clioose 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 hut not killed ; and perhaps to other things hesides. It may be, I douht 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 bewai-e 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 Zembla (Ibis, 1870, p. 304). In northern Lapland, Wolley found it breeding higher in the mountains than Falco gijrfalco. It can be traced across Siberia, southward of lat. 64° 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 Leyclen 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 Avhich 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 62 FALCONID^. imagines that the statement of its breeding in Ceylon, made by Mr. Layard, has also arisen in error. De Filippi met with it in Persia, and Canon Tristram in Palestine, where he says that it occurs in suitable places at all times of the year. In E crypt 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. harharus. In America, it has long been a matter of doubt whether the Falcon, which there admittedly represents F. pereorhius, should be 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 either side of the Atlantic which entirely agree with each other. Under this view of the case, then, it may be said that the Peregrine Falcon inhabits suitable localities throughout the Avhole of the New World, from Port Kennedy, at the most northern point of the American conti- nent (whence specimens not to be distinguished from English PEREGRINE 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 Falcon'uhv 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 FALCONID^. 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 colouring. There is a remarkable specimen in Mr. Newcome's collection, in which the belly, vent, and flanks are of a light blue-grey, with the usual dark bars. 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 eaten by the birds makes a sensible diflerence 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. -w^^ A CCIPITRES. HOBBV. 65 FA ICON ID. a. 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 66 FALCONID^. 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 eggs, in colour much resembling those of the Iceland Falcon before described, and measuring from 1"72 to 1*5 by 1*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 load it to take a wider range, and to disregard such very strict observance of limits. In Ireland there seems to be but two instances of its occurrence that can be trusted, one recorded by Thompson, and a second about three years since in Tipperary, the specimen being in the Museum of the Royal 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 county; while Dr. Bnllmore, in his ' Cornish Fauna,' describes a third. In Devonshire, Dr. Moore and Mr. Brooking Rowe, 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, Northamptonshire, ^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 Nottingham- shire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. In Scotland, according to Mr. Robert 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 Russian 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 sercnis takes its place. Turning westward, De Filippi obtained it in June at Mareud, 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 FA-LCONID.E. and to occur chiefly in winter. Dr. A. E. Brelim obtained it on the Blue Nile. Nothing seems to be known of it further south until we aj^proach the extremity of the con- tinent; but, though rare, it occurs in the Cape Colony, where it encounters another ally, the Falco ciwieri, which last seems to range along the western coast northward. F. subhuteo 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, are 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, Geotnipes 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 buffy- 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 barred with dull white and greyish-black ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws 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. c??^^):S^&t 69 FALCONID^E. Falco vespertinus, Linnteus*. THE EED-FOOTED FALCON. Falco riifipes\. The Ked-footed Falcon, or Orange-legged Hobby, is u species of small size, and so much in its general contour resembling the Hobby, that Buffon described and figured the ' Syst. Ntit. Ed. VI, i. p. Vl^^i (17(56). t Beseke, Vogel Kurkuids, \>. 20 (1792). 70 FALCONID.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. 116). 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 Wicldow. 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 Red-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. Malmgreu, several times observed in the summer of 1869 ; and three examples were killed so far to the north as lat. 65°. It is common in the neighbourhood of Archangel, and eastward it ranges as far as the plains of Tunkinsk in Western Siberia, which appears to be its limit : since the bird, formerly confounded witb this species, and found in Araoorland, China and India, is distinct, the Falco amu- rens'is, 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 vespertinus 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- sibly occur further to the southward in Eastern Africa, but there F. amurensls reappears and extends to Natal. In Damaraland this last has been only known to occur once, while F. rcsjyert'uiuH, according to the late Mr. C. J. Andersson, arrives there during the wet season in incredible numbers ; and further to the nortli, in Benguela, a large IIED FOOTED FALCON. 71 series of specimens was obtained and sent to Professor du Bocage at Lisbon. Loclie 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 Red-footed 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. Salvador! says that it has not bred there to his knowledge. It is most numerous in the eastern parts of Europe, in Greece, Turkey, Southern Russia 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 w^ork, found it l)reeding, often in small societies, and taking possession of the nests of the Crow, Rook, 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 1*16 in. In Central Germany it seems only to occur occasionally ; but throughout the wdiole 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 w^ork 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 FALCONID^. of ortlioptei'ous or neuroi^terous 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 part of their diet, though they do not appear to prey on 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 legs 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 bai-red 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 eye 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-l)lack. 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-gi"ey, with numerous transverse bars of bhiish-grey : under surface of the tail bhiish-grey, with nine or ten transverse bars of bkiish-bhick, 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 irides as in the adult female. -V?fei:C*?»t#r^ VOL. I. 74. ACClPITRIiS. FALCONld;. FALCONID^H. Falco .esalon, Gmelin*. THE MEKLIN. Falco (esalon. The Merlin, in some parts of the country known as tlie " Stone-Falcon," is one of the smallest of the British Falco- it'iihc, 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, has been seen to strike and kill a Partridge that was certainly more 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 " 8yst. Kal. 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 Dunliii. The j\Ierlin 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 colli inharhis, which, among other diff"erences, 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 Faeroes it remains all the year. It breeds in suitalde localities 76 FALCONID.E. tlirougliout Norway, and the northern part of Sweden, as well as in Finland. Thence it ranges across Russia and Siberia, to the Sea of Ochotsk, where Dr. von Middendorff found it breeding, but it is said not to be very numerous in Eastern Siberia, and the specimens described thence by Herr Radde diftered slightly from European ones. It does not seem to have been observed in Japan, but 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 Nubia, 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 are sometimes uniformly sufl'used 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, j^artially blotched with purplish-red and violet. They measure from 1-6 to I'-iS by 1*24 to 1-15 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 irides dark brown ; the top of the head blue- MERLIN. 77 grey, with dark lines passing backward ; the cheeks, and thence round the hack 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 tbeir 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 edge 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. 78 A CCIP/TIIES. FALCON 7 DyE. FA LCONTDJ^.. Falco tinnunculus, Liniifeus*. THE KESTREL, OR WINDHOVER. Falco tinimncidus. The Kesteel is the most common species of the British Falcon id (C, and from its peculiar hahits, which phxce 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. p. 127 (1766). KESTREL. 79 searching fur its food, jind 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 hest 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 tyj)e of the genus Tinnunculus, in which case the present species is called Tinminculns 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 larvfe, and earth-worms have been found in their stomachs ; and Helby, 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 Crow 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 KALCONlUvE, dark brownish-red or orange, and sometimes with blotches of the 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 1-36 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 Paleearctic Region, 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 Herr H. C. Miiller, been taken in the Faeroes. 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 68° N. 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 the 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 KESTREL. ^L the i^aiustakiiig authors of the ' Birds of Europe,' before quoted, iudistiuguishable from those killed iu Britain, while others again are much paler iu colour. Returning 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 iu 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. Gurney 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 Ti)iiiuncuh(s 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 Good Hope, whence a young male, caught on board ship, is contained iu the Leyden Museum. Andersson 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 pioic- tatiis ; and that of Cuba, F. si)((rvcrioides ; while others have a wider distribution, and the so-called "American Sparrow- VOL. I. M 82 FALCONID.E. Hawk," F. sparvcrhis, rivals F. tlnnnnculus 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 Falco cenchris of authors — a common bird in Southern Europe — is said to have been killed in England, and has been admitted by the Rev. 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 exhi])it the adult plumage, the head being the last part to change. ACCIPITREH. GOS-HAWK. 83 FA LCONIDuf,. AsTUR PALUMBARius (Liniipens*). THE CtOS-HAWK. Astur 2xiUimhayiu>i. AsTUR, Lacepedef. — 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-feathers, the fourth quill-featlier the longest. Legs stout, the tai'si 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 palumbariiis, Linnseiis, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (176()). t Memoires de I'Institut, iii. p. 506 (1800-1801). 84 FALCONll)^. 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, Rabbits, 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 Thornville 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. In 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 helieve that it has even recently bred in Kirkcudbrightshire, as it formerlv, almost without GOS-HAWK. 85 doubt, did in Forfarshire, Stirling, Moray and Sntherland. 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 Rothiemurcus, 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 Russian Empire, reaching to Kamtchatka : man 5' indi- viduals from those far eastern regions, as also, to some extent, those from Southern Prussia, 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 Filipj)i 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 PtUppell, as well as by Captain Shelley, but 86 FALCON I DiE. 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, Rabbits, Squirrels, Wild Ducks, 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, maldng 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 tiriiber." 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 2*12 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-HAAVK. 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 broAvn, 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 of 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 Gos-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 atricapillus, recognizable in its adult plumage by its darker head and the much closer bai-ring 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 'Ah- 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). 88 ACCIPITRES. FALCONID.E. FALCON I D.E. '^'^"^■^'K- H'^'"^ AcciPiTEE Nisus (Linnaeus *). THE SPAREOW-HAWK. Accipiter nisus. AcciPiTER, Brissonf. — Beak bending from the base, short, compressed, supe- rior ridge rounded and naiTOw, 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 Spakrow-Hawk is another sliort-winged Hawk, bnt 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 ■" Falcj nisus, Linna?us, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766). t Ornithologie, i. p. 310 (1760). SPARROW-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 jDrovided 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 vdih 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-Rails, 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 uucoloured, 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 diftused 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^. 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 Kordofan. 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 Acc'iplter major of some authors, is said to occur; differing from A. nisiis 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. Gerbe, in his revised edition of the ' Ornithologie Europeenne ' of the late Dr. Degland, enters at some length upon these alleged difterences, but the opinion of most ornithologists, and probably the correct one, is that the A. major is not a good species, or even a distinct race. In the south of Russia, 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. hrevqwa (Severzow), seems to be the correct one. This differs notably from the Common Sparrow-Hawk in its shorter toes. It is the Falco finriici/l 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 irides orange ; the uj^per 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 irides 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, wing-coverts and thighs, SPARROW-PrAWK. 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 A CCfPITRES. FALCONID/E. FA LCONIDyR. MiLvus ICTINUS (Savigny*). THE KITE, OR GLEAD. Alilviis vidgaris f , MiLVUS, Lacepede+. — Beak sti-aight at tlie base, curved from the cere to the point, cutting margin with a slight festoon. 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, but slightly reversible. Claws moderately long and curved. The eed 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, * Systeme des Oiseaiix de I'/igypte et de la Syrie, p. 28 (1810). t Fleming, British Animals, p 51 (1828). X Memoires de I'Institut, iii. p. 606 1800-1801). KITK. 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 Ai/aJt, 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 Ravens." 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 Royalty, and by many naturalists it is still called Milras rcgaUs, 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 FALCON I D.E. without missing oue, 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. K. Langtry jirocured from the nest a pair which became tame and familiar, and notwithstanding that they w^ere 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 l)ird 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 literarischen Yereins in Stuttgart, vii. p. 40 (1844). t 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 fastenedthe feet of the poor kites so firmly to the boughs that some adventurous youths brouglit 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 2*43 to 2'05 by 1'82 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 Avere 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 Alcoubury 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. Robert 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 bis 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 moiUh of Autolycus : " When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen." — Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 2. 96 FALCONID^. The Kite is not uncommon in most parts of Europe, from the southern districts of Norway to the shores and islands of the MediteiTanean. In Sweden, though one of the earHest birds to arrive in spring, it is said by Herr Wallengren not to breed north of lat. 61°, and it is not known wdth 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 irides 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. BLACK KITE. ACCIPITRES. 97 FA LCONIDJi MiLvus MIGRANS (Boclclaert*). 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) (Falco ater, Gmel. 1788), came into my possession in a fresh state on the 11th of May, 1866. * Falco mif/rans, Boddaert, Table des Planches Enlumineez, p. 28, no. 472 (1783). VOL. I. O 98 FALCONIDyE. It was taken in a trap by Mr, F. Fulger, the Duke of Norfclmmberland's game-keeper, a few days before, in the Red Deer Park at Ahiwick. 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 I received from the Continent some years ago. It was proved by dissection to be a male." M. Jules Verreaux has informed Mr. Gurney that the Black Kite in France appears to be now more abundant than formerly, and apparently in proportion as the Red Kite is growing rarer. Dr. Bruch also, in the ' Journal fiir 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 of migrans, by Boddaert, though the appellation of nlfier, which it received from Brisson, con- tinues to be used by many writers. The name of ater, * It must be observed, however, that SibbaM, in his ' Scotia Illustrata' (part iii. p. 15), published in 1684, 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 list of birds (p. 39), between the names of Falcu mihus and F. buteo, " Falco ater ; 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 ater 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 by J. F. Gmelin, or that of (etollus by Savigny — the Last equally belonging to an allied species, is also frequently applied to this bird. Like the jireceding 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 Red 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. Finsch states that on the Balkan he several times saw Black Kites and Ravens 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 gain 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 FALCONID.E. of rags, wool and other soft materials, while on the surrounding- branches are 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 of 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 Red Kite already described. Mr. Salvin and Canon 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 Milvns melanotis 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. Gurney 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. mifirans; these are M. affinis, which ranges from Chusan to Australia, besides occurring in India, and .V. govincla, the common " Pariah Kite " of that country, in which the true Black Kite is not found, though a specimen from Affghanistan in the East India Museum is, according to Mr. Gurney, referable to M. Diinraiis. This last is said, by Pallas, to winter in Persia. ULACK KITE. 101 where De Filippi also fouud it. It is very common in the Caucasus, and Messrs. Dickson and Ross 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, Milnis (('(jii2)tias (easily recognized, when adult, by its pale j-ellow beak), must have been mistaken for it. The explanation of the difficulty probably lies in the fact that while M. (erjijptlus 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, j)i"onounced by Mr. Gurney 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. (cgi/j^tivs. Returning 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 Leydeu 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 uncommonlv in some localities. 102 FALCONID.E. An adult male from the Volga, killed in April, measures about twenty-two inches in length ; the wing from the an- terior hend to the end of the longest quill (the third) about seventeen inches ; the tail ten inches and a half. The beak is hlack, the lower mandible yellowish at the base ; the cere and lips orange. Iris pale greyish-yellow, surrounded hy 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 and tertials dark reddish-brown, almost hlack, the last with purple reflexions. The tail above much the same colour as the hack, 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 wings 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, hut 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, which in some examples is of a greyish- white, in others ferruginous, and the bands of the tail are less distinct. Mr. Gurney is of opinion that examples from South Africa do not possess the grey head, and thereby much re- semble the Australian and Eastern Milrns affinis. It may hence be inferred, perhaps, that South Africa is only visited by young birds in their first plumage. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. ACC/PITRES. 103 FALCONID.f:. Nauclerus furcatus (Liunseus*). THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. Nauclerus furcatus . Nauclerus, Vigors^. — " 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 angidated scales. Toes short ; the two lateral almost equal, the hinder nearly equal to the inner. Claws grooved beneath."— /S'it'ainson %. Two specimens of this bird having been apparently taken in 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 * Faico furcatus, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 129 (1766). t Zoological Journal, ii. p. 386 (1825). X Natural History and Classification of Birds, ii. p. 210. 1 04 FALCONID.i:. 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 Professor Duns, who lately examined the original record, now in the library of the University of Edinburgh, has kindly informed the Editor. Details of the second example are more precise. In the extracts from the Minute Book of the Linnean 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- rigg 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 6th 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 Rooks, 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] W. Fothergill. Sepr. 30th. 1805." The Editor has further been kindly shewn by his obliging correspondent a letter addressed to his father the following year by his nephew — the late Mr. Charles Fothergill of York, an ardent naturalist, who says " I have also SWALLOW-TATLED KITE. 10") proved, what I expected would be the case, that tlie Fuleo taken at Hardraw Scan* was the Swallow-tailed Falcon or Falco fur- catus of Linuteus," 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 b}^ jiublic 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 Rocky 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 Rio 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 tliis bird have been described in detail l)y VOL. T. p lOf) FALCON I DiE. many observers, as the one last mentioned, Seliomburgk, Prince Max, Nattall 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 comes 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, states that it takes small birds when feeding, adding that it soars to a greater height than any other Hawk known to him, and Mr. Piobert Owen has given an interesting account (Ibis, 1860, p. 240) of a large flock of Swallow-tailed Kites, from an hundred-and-fifty to three-hundred in number, which he encountered while travelling in Guatemala. They were gliding to 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 Avas 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, In-iuging 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 brought forward until it met the beak. This position was only sustained a moment, during which the beak was SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 107 seeu to open ; the head was then, with closed heak, 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 Puo 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 1-78 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, l)ut it has no gloss Avhatever. 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 180;") : — 108 FALCONID.E. " Lenjijtb 22 inches, breadth 4 feet 1 inch. The bill to the corner of the mouth Ij 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 feathers 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 Societv. "'^'^^»^^-.^«^>' COMMON BUZZAllD, ACCIPITREH. J 09 FA LCONID.E. BuTEO VULGARIS, Leach*. THE COMMON BUZZAKD. Buteo vulfiaris. Bdteo, Lacepcdef. — Bill rather small and weak, bending from the base, part of the cutting 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 hirger kind of Hawks which inhabit the wooded districts of this country, preying upon small quadrupeds, birds and reptiles. Its * Systematic Catalogue of J\I;iinmalia and Birds in the British Museum, p. 10 (181fi). t Memoires de rin^.t,itut, iii. p. T.dG (1 SfKi-lSO] ). 110 FALCON ID.*;. courage, as compared with others of the Falconhhe, has been questioned ; since it is known to attack such animals as are either young or defenceless, which it does 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 feathers. The Buzzard is a fine 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 Luzida. Another visited by him was on the horizontal bough of a Scotch-fir, and the year before had Ijeen occupied by a Kite ; but in all the nests described by him the Luznla formed part of the linino'. In Eno-land 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 1'86 to 1'58 in., and greatly resembling those of the Red 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. Rocke (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 112 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 be 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 Ring-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 wa}' 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 62° N. lat. for Norway and 66° for Sweden. In Finland, as far north as Kajana, it is stated by Dr. Malmgren to breed and to be the commonest of the Falconidre ; 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 it except in the southern provinces of their country ; but Dr. von Middendorff found it breed- ing not uncommonly on the Staunovoi Mountains in the extreme east of Siberia, particularly remarking that the example he obtained was not referable to the Buteo COMMON BUZZARD. 113 japonicus — 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, Maderia and the Azores — tbe last group of islands taldng 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 Uneatus or the Red- 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 desertorum (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 14 FALCONID.E. give some idea of the ordinary appearance of tlie Common Buzzard. The beak is bluish-black, darkest towards the point ; the cere yellow, the irides 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 brocoli-brown ; under tail -coverts white ; the tail beneath greyish-white, barred transversely with dark Avood-brown ; legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. Mr. Gurney believes that the variation in the plumage of this species is greater in birds of the first or second year than in those which are older, and that adults may be 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. Gurney, Junior. The vignette below, is from a sketch of the Buzzard, taken in the garden referred to at page 111. ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 11, ACCIPITRES. FALCON J D^t:. BuTp]o LAGOPus (J. F. Gmelin*). THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. Biifi'o Jdfjopuii. The Rough-legged Buzzard is at once distiiiguisLed from the Common Buzzard last described, by having the tarsi covered, in front and on the sides, with feathers as Ioav 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 Biiteo, and made the type of a genus Arcldhuteo, a course which has met with the approval of many authorities. In its habits and powers, however, it resembles * Falro latjopm, J. F. Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 260 (1788;. 116 FALCON 1 1)/E. the Common Buzzard; but it does not exhibit quite the same extent of variation in the colour of the pkimage. The Rough- legged Buzzard, although it has been killed in almost every English county, and occurs, occasionally in large numbers, in this country every year, must be regarded as the more rare bii'd 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 Haclmess," and further particulars on this subject have been supphed to Mr. More (Ibis, 1865, p. 12) by Mr. Alwin Bell. Mr. Edward of Banff also says (Zool. p. 5201) that its nest has been found in that 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 haunts the open country and especially such districts as abound in rabbits, which with smaller mammals, water-fowl and reptiles constitute its chief food. 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 island, as Messrs. Gurney and Fisher have also done with especial reference to the neighbourhood of Thetford. In 1858, according to Mr. Stevenson, it was again numerous in the locality last mentioned. In Scotland it appears also in autumn, and at irregular periods is plentiful, but more com- monly on the east than on the west 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 great length of time. It generally has its nest on high trees and lays, rather early in the year, from three to five eggs, a very large series of which was obtained in Lapland by the late Mr. Wolley, some of the most beautiful being figured in the catalogue of his collection (Ooth. Woll. pis. v., vi.). They ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. 117 vary exceedingly iu 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 2*44 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 grows so 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 Kite. This species inhabits the northern parts of the European and Asiatic continents. In 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 Radde 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 Von 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 Rome. In Savoy it would seem 118 " FALCONlD/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 been 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, Aqiiila 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. Kj^erbolling 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 Eough-legged Buzzards which occur in the British Islands are in immature plumage, which in this species, as in so many of the true Falcons, dift'ers 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 this country. Mr. Stevenson says 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 July, 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 Naumann's ' Vogel Deutschlands ' (pi. xxxiv.) and the beautiful plate in Mr. Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain ' leaves little to be desired, while an excellent KOUGH-LEGPtEI) BIjZZARD. 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 Bitteo lagoims is represented by a closely allied species, the B. sancti-johan7iis, characterized by its o^enerally more rufous, and sometimes much darker plumage. As already stated, the Rough-legged Buzzard is subject to some considerable individual variation, and it is impossible in a few w^ords 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 FALCONID.E. feathers of the tibiae and tarsi sometimes white and some- times a deep ferruginous, but invariably having numerous bars of dark brown. The feet yellow, the claws dark horu- 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 of the neck, pale buff, each feather streaked or patched in the centre with dark brown ; the back, Aving-coverts and rump, clove-brown, some of the feathers edged with fawn- colour ; primaries brownish-black ; upper tail-coverts bufi'y- white, with an angular brown patch near the end of each feather ; upper surface of the tail buflfy-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 bufiy-white : proximal half of the under surface of the tail white, the distal half greyish-brown. HONEY-BUZZARD. ACCIPITRES. 121 FA LCONlDAi. Peenis apivorus (Linuaeiis*). THE HONEY-BUZZAKD. Pernis ainvorus. Pernis, Cuvierf. — Bill slendei-, 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-Buzz ard is a rare species in this country, and if not exclusively a summer-visitor the fact is mainly • Falco apivorus, LinnsBus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (1766). t Regne Animal, i. p. 322 (1817). VOL. I. R 122 FALCONID.E. owing to its numbers being increased in autumn 'by an immigration, which is chieily noticeable on the east coast, from abroad ; those so arriving being mostly birds of the year. It has long been known to breed in England. Wil- lughby, who was the first to give this species an English name, describes two young Honey-Buzzards which he saw in a nest that had formerly been a Kite's. They were covered with white down, through which the dark feathers were appearing, and had been fed with wasp-grubs, lizards and frogs. Pennant in 17C6 figured a supposed hen bird which was shot from her nest containing two eggs, and all English naturalists are 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 bold boy climbed and brought down the single egg it contained. In 1794 Dr. Heysham mentioned that it had bred in Cumberland. For some 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 long after Macgillivray recorded a nest with three eggs taken in Aberdeenshire. In ' The Zoologist ' for 1844 (p. 237) the late Mr. Wilmot gave an interesting account of a pair of birds, shot in Wellgrove Wood near Henley-on-Thames, in 1838, which had a nest with two eggs, one of which is now in the Wolley Collection, while the skins of the parents are in the possession of Mr. Fuller- 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 been recorded of the Honey-Buzzard breeding in Northumberland, Shrop- shire, Staflbrdshire and Northamptonshire — to say nothing of the New Forest, where it still almost yearly breeds or attempts to breed, for between the desire of collectors to possess specimens and of gamekeepers and idlers to provide them, it has but little chance of accomplishing its IIONKY-BUZZARI). 123 end. Mr. Henry John Elwcs and Mr. IScavcn Bake have kindly contrihuted some valuahle information on this subject, but in the interest of the birds no true naturalist would wish that the precise particulars should be at present pul)- 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 witli 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 bufiy-whito 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 in 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 2'0(\ to 1-01 by 1-73 to 1-40 in. In Scotland a second nest has l)een of late years taken in Aberdeenshire as stated on the authority of Mr. W. C. Angus, and according to Mr. Robert Gray a very consideral)le number of birds have been killed at various pbices 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 lins been informed by Mr. Newcoiric, who bns Iiimsulf oliservod the fact, tliat in France the Honey-lUizzard, wlien it has young, surrounds the nest with a bower of leafy boughs — whetlier to serve as a screen or a barrier he does not know, and wliile tlie 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 FALCONID^E. tioii. 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 Leyden Museum, and Pere David has 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 Pernis ptUorhynclms. In Palestine the Honey-Buzzard is rather scarce, though believed to be a resident, but in Arabia and Egypt, wdiere 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. Layard 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 part 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 larvae 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. Gerbe discovered a young Wild Duck and a fish in a nest he saw. The feet have been noticed to be covered with cow-dung, 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). 12G FAI;C;()NTD;E. tills 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 Iloney- liuzzard is good eating. As was long ago observed by Willughby, the Honey- Buzzard " runs very swiftly like a Hen," and its carriage and the short, rounded feathers which clothe its lores give it the most unhawk-like look of all the J^ritish Falconida. Mr. Newcome, who obtained some young birds from the nest in France, found them, though allowed complete liberty, to be exceedingly tame and domestic. Notwith- standing their familiarity, however, as autumn approached they disappeared, joining no doubt the bands of their brethren migrating southwards at that season. This species, like some of the true Ikizzards, presents remarkable variety in colour and markings, especially in birds of the first or second year ; but after the assumption of the uniform ashy-grey head, indicating maturity, there is little irregularity. Some extreme variations are well illus- trated in Naumann's work on the l)irds 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 1843 (p. 793). The figure and description here given Avere taken from a specimen in the liritish Museum, which was killed near York. The beak is black ; the cere grey, the irides yellow ; the upper part of the head and back of the neck bufty-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 each feather marked by a dark brown longitudinal streak or patch, those of the belly transversely barred : thighs and under tail-coverts varied with yellowish-brown and white ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. Honey-Buzzards measure from twenty-two to twenty-five inches, depending on the sex. In the young the irides are hazel, but become straw-coloured with age. MARSU-HARKIEI ACCIPITRES. Circus ^eruginosus (Linna3us*). THE MAKSH-HARRIER. Circus (eruginosiis. Circus, Lacepklef. — Beak siiuill, bending from the liase, conipresseil .ind elevated ; cutting edge of the ujjper 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 ; claw.s slightly curved, and very sharj). * Fdlco a'riiyinoaus, Linnteus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 130 (17(J. 201 (1788). t Isis, 1823, 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 douht 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 Roth- bury, in April 1849 ; and the third was caught alive at Widdrington some twelve years since. Li 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 be 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 6tli of April, 1857, and now in the possession of Mr. H. N. Burroughes, and has kindly forwarded the further information that an example was caught alive at Beechamwell in the same county, on the 27tli of January, 1849, and is now in the collection of the Rev. 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. 156 STRIGIDiE. p. 9020) a fourteenth English example taken at Flam- borough in October, 1863. Mr. Eobert Gray mentions the occurrence of three specimens in Scotland : one killed in Sutherland in 1847, one in Orkney in 1851 and the third caught alive on Cramond Island in the Firth of Forth in December, 1860. In Ireland it does not seem to have occurred. This little Owl inhabits thick forests in Norway, Sweden and Russia, even in very high northern latitudes, but though its eastern limits cannot be precisely stated, it would seem not 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. Liudermayer 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. R. 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 and south-eastern France, while it also occasionally occurs on the Vosges and in the Ardennes. Not much if anything very satisfactory was known respect- ing the breeding-habits of this species until Wolley announced to the Zoological 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 against a much larger bird. The eggs are smooth and white, four or five in number, and measure from 1"43 to 1*15 by 1'09 by -98 in., an exceptionally small one being only '76 by '68 in. The food of this Owl consists of mice and large beetles. Its call-note is said to be 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 Robert 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 Sii- William Milner recorded (Zool. p. 7104) the supposed occurrence, near Beverley in Yorkshire, of another allied American species, the N. acadica. 158 ACCIPJTItES. STRIGIIX^. STRWIDJi. Asio OTUS (Linnaeus*). THE LONG-EARED OWL. Otus vulgariH f . Asio, J3risson+. — Beak decurved from the base ; cere large ; under mandible notched. Nostrils oval, oblique. Facial disk comijlete. Conch of the ear extremely large, with a semicircular operculum running the whole length in front, and a raised margin behind ; auditoi-y 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-eared Owl, from the variety and beauty of the markings on its plumage, is a very handsome species, * Slrix otus LinnreuR, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 132 (17G6). + Fleming, British Animals, p. 60 (1828). t Ornithologie, i. p. 677 (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 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 1*78 to 1*45 by 1*35 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 STRIGlDiE. an addition by migration in autumn. In Scotland, according to Mr. Robert Gray, it is less common on 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, 18G8. 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. 64°, 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 or less common in many parts of China. Mr. Hume believes it to be 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 and thence through the Punjab. Menetries found it in the forests of Georgia, 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 Petraea 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 Godman 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 formerl}', and still by some ornithologists, regarded as identical with the species of the Old World, is now usually considered dis- tinct, and, in Mr. Gurney's opinion, the American bird, the Otus ivilsonianus 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 Otns, 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 length, 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 imjjerfect 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 STKIGin.E. 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- fined to the exterior, the skull remaining symmetrical. But even this carious feature has been noticed by very few writers, and by none, apparently, of our own countrymen. Klein in his ' Historise 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 Societe Eoyale des Sciences de Liege ' (vol. i. pp. 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, in the 'Transactions of the Zoological Society' (vol. iv.), where the right and left conchs of the Tawny Owl, the Little Owl and that which is next to be described, are figured. SHORT-EARED OWL. ACCIPITRES. 163 8TRIG1D.E. ^ I V \ r\-4 Asio ACCiPiTRiNus (Pallas*). THE SHORT-EARED OWL. Otus hrachyotos^. 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 accipilrina, Pallas, Reisen u.s.w. i. p. 455 (1771). t Sti-ix brachyotos, J. R. Forster, Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 384 (1772). 164 STlllGlD/E. score. It lies close, but when disturbed will often mount high and seem to suffer no inconvenience from the daylight. Many of those that visit 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 fact seems to have been only published in 1833, when Hoy first 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. Rocke (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. AVhen approaching the nest or j^oung, 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 and cries. 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 1-74 to 1-37 by 1'33 to 1"15 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 Grloucestershire 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 Richardson, that in the Fur-countries it lays ten or twelve ]66 STRIGID.E. 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, 1862, p. 27), to the effect that in the neighbourhood of that place it sometimes pairs and breeds with a very distinct species, the Otus cajjensis of Sir Andrew Smith — the 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 be 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 Greenland though, according to Professor Reinhardt, 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. H. 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 lias 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. Gurney 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, Avith five transverse bars of very dark brown ; chin Avliite ; 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 ACCIPITRH^. STRIGlDyI<; STRlalDJi. Bubo ignavus, T. Forster*. EAGLE-OWL. Bubo maxinms t. Bubo, DmiurllX- — Bill short, strong, curved, compressed at the point. Nos- trils pierced in the cere, large, oval or rounded. Facial di.sk incomplete about the eyes. Auditory opening, small, oval, without an operculum. Wings rather short, concave; the third and fourth quill-feathers generally the longest. Legs and toes covered with feathers ; claws long. Head furnished with two tufts of feathers. * Synoptical Catalogue of British Birds, p. 3 (1817). t Fleming, British Animals, p. 57 (1S28). t Zoologie Analytique, p. 34 (1S06). EAGLE-OWT,. 169 Following the arrangement of the Family of Owls pre- viously projected (page 149) the second subdivision of the first chief group of species is now reached — that in which there is no operculum or fold of skin overlying the orifice of the ears. Like the preceding subdivision, this includes as well species which possess as those which do not possess the superficial character of "horns," and, for the sake of con- venience those which are so adorned are here taken first. The Eagle-Owl is one of the largest species of the family, and inhabits pretty generally the northern parts of the Old World ; but it must be considered a rare bird in England, an example occurring only occasionally, and at uncertain intervals. Its food consists of the larger sorts of game, such as fawns, hares and grouse, and also of mice, rats and moles. Its cry is a sonorous hoot, which has been syllabled by various writers as "coo-hoo," " ugh-ugh " and "boo-boo." The nest of this bird is usually on a ledge among rocks, a preference (as is the case with Eagles when occupying a similar site) being shown for a southern aspect, but occa- sionally in a tree, some six feet from the ground ; and also, it is said, on ruined walls. Those seen by Wolley were merely holes scratched in the turf, and had no materials added to the bed thus formed ; the eggs of one taken by one of his collectors lay on the sand against the upturned roots of a tree ; but some writers say that the nest is large, the materials collected being spread over a surface of several square feet. The female is larger than the male, and pro- duces two or three almost globular, white eggs, measuring from 2-48 to 2-18 by 2 to 1-84 in. Linnaeus, on his journey to Lapland, found this bird and its nest on one of the higher hills of a district through which he passed. The nest contained an addled egg and two young- birds : these last were of small size, clothed with long whitish down. He subsequently discovered two other young birds of the same species which were nearly full grown, but unable to fly. Among the many graphic contributions on the nidification of birds made by Wolley to the last edition of Mr. Hewitson's oological work, there is scarcely one superior VOL, I. '^ 170 STRIGIDyT:. to the description of a nest of this species, found hy that much- regretted ornithologist in the very district where Linnfeus saw the nests just mentioned ; and the close agreement, even in some minute particulars, of the accounts given by these two observers affords remarkable proof of the accuracy of each. In the southern and western counties of England, the Eagle-Owl has been obtained in Kent, Sussex and Devon- shire. One was caught alive so near London as Hampstead, and it is said to have occurred in Suffolk, Norfolk, Oxford- shire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Durham ; besides near Swansea in Wales. Some of these instances certainly, and possibly most of them, are due to examples which have escaped from captivity. In Scotland it was said of old time by Sibbald to inhabit the Orkneys, while Messrs. Baikie and Heddle mention a specimen obtained, in 1830, on Sandey, one of the islands of that group. According to Pennant an example was killed in Fifeshire in the last century, and Mr. Robert Gray mentions, on the authority of Mr. Angus, the capture of one in Aberdeenshire, in February, 1866. Other cases of its supposed occurrence have also been given, but a mistake as to the species seems likely to have been made. The only record of the Eagle-Owl's appearance in Ireland rests on an unsatisfactory statement, quoted by Thompson, to the effect that once, after a great storm, four such birds paid a two days' visit to Donegal, but were not seen again. This bird inhabits all the countries of continental Europe, from Lapland to the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as the whole of Siberia, to the furthest corner of Asia ; espe- cially frequenting tracts of forest and mountains. It is by no means rare, according to Mr. Swinhoe, in many parts of China, going as far southward as Amoy and Canton. Mr. Jerdon says that it occurs in the higher regions of the Hima- layas, whence a specimen was sent to the Calcutta Museum by Captain Smyth of Almorah. Strickland obtained it in Asia Minor. It is not known to occur in Palestine, though occasionally met with in winter in Lower Egypt. It is found EAGLE-OWL, 171 in Algeria, but whether it breeds there has not been re- corded. It does not seem to occur in Sardinia, though not uncommon in Sicily. It is well known as a species here, being constantly exhi- bited in various menageries, where, except during the pairing season, when its peculiar hoot may often be heard, it is mostly quiet, uttering no sound but an occasional sharp and snapping noise made with the bill. It has been known to live to a great age, and has bred in confinement at Arundel Castle, and elsewhere. Mr. Edward Fountaine, who has been remarkably successful in his treatment of birds of this family, has for some years kept many Eagle-Owls at Eastou near Norwich, the majority having been reared in his aviaries, and as some of them were hatched from eggs laid by birds bred by him, he may be considered to have, in some degree, domesticated the species. The foregoing figure was taken from a bird in the garden of the Zoological Society, and the following description from spe- cimens formerly in its museum. The beak is nearly black, the base hidden by the radiating feathers of the facial disk ; irides bright orange ; the tufts on the head contain seven or eight dark-coloured feathers, with light brown bars on the inner webs ; the head, neck and back, a mixture of reddish- brown and dark brown, the darker colour occupying the middle of each feather, forming streaks, the other parts of the web mottled ; primaries and tail above similar in colour, Init barred transversely ; the feathers of the facial disk light brown speckled with greyish-black, those under the disk white ; breast pale brown, with longitudinal patches of dark brown ; belly, under tail-coverts, thighs, legs and toes, pale brown, with numerous narrow transverse bars of dark brown ; tail beneath dusky brown, barred with pale brown ; ctaws black. The whole length from twenty-four to twenty-eight inches, the difference depending upon sex. In the older nestlings described by Linnaeus the bill was black ; irides saff'ron-yellow ; pupil bluish-black ; the general plumage soft ; the wings dark, with reddish-brown spots ; feathers of the l)reast brick-red, Avith a dark indented longi- 172 STRIGID^. tudinal stripe ; wing- and tail-quills still short, blackish, with roundish red spots ; feet reddish-brown. Examples from the colder parts of Kussia, and, according to Lord Lilford, those from Albania and Greece, are said to be of a paler tint than those from more western districts, and have been described as forming a distinct species, Bubo sihiricus or B. athenicnsis. In the New World our Eagle- Owl is represented by a kindred species, B. viryinlanus, possessing much the same habits, and also subject to con- siderable variation in colour. In the south of Europe another species, recognizable, among other characters, by its shorter "'horns" is also, though rarely, found. This is the B. (tacalaphus. ACCIPITRE8. SCOPS-OWL. 173 STRIGID^. Scops giu (Scopoli *). THE SCOPS-OWL. Scofis Aldrovandii. Scops, SavigmjX- — Beak much decurved from the base, cere small, under mandi- ble notched. Nostrils round. Facial disk incomplete above the eyes ; auditory conch small, and without an oi^erculum. Wings Jong, reaching to the end of the tail ; the third quill generally the longest. Tarsi rather long, feathered in front: the toes naked. Head furnished with two tufts of feathers. This little tufted Owl, one of the smallest of the family found in this country, was first noticed as a British Bird in or about the year 1805, by the then Mr. Foljambe of Osber- ton and the late Mr. Charles Fotheigill from specimens killed in Yorkshire, as announced by Montagu. Other examples, to the number nearly of a score, have since occurred ; but at various times of the year, thus shewing '■ atrix (jiu Scopoli, Annus I. Historico-Naturalis, p. I'J (1709). t Fleming, British Animals, p. 5/ ^1828). + Systcnie des Oiseiuix de I'Esypte ct de hi Syrie, p. (1810). 174 STRIGID.E. that the species which is known as a regular summer migrant in most parts of Southern Europe, arriving and departing with the Swallow, is in this country but a casual visitor ; and that we have it at all is probably due to the fact that the examples observed have been stragglers which have lost their way. It is almost strictly nocturnal in its habits, passing the day, according to MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy- Lapommeraye, hidden in thick foliage, or squatting length- ways on a bare branch, and feeds upon mice, shrews, beetles, grasshoppers and large moths. It forms a simple nest in holes of trees, and possibly of walls, or in the fissures of rocks, laying from two to four or five eggs, which are white, and measure from 1-22 to 1-17 by from 1*07 to 1-04 in. The example of this little Owl, which was figured by Selby, was taken near London ; and I am indebted to Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron- Walden, for the knowledge of the occurrence of two specimens on the estate of Lord Bray- brooke, at Audley End in Essex — all three having been met with prior to November, 1837. Dr. Hastings, in his ' Wor- cestershire,' notices that one was taken alive near Fladbur3^ Of those shot in Yorkshire, as already mentioned, Mr. Fothergill's was killed near Wetherby in the spring of 1805, and is the subject of Bewick's woodcut representing this species, while others are in the Foljambe Collection at Osberton. The Scops has been obtained some four or five times in Norfolk, at seasons so opposite as June and November, as well as at Brill, in Buckinghamshire, in the spring of 1833 (Zool. p. 2596) near Pembroke in the spring of 1808 (Zool. s.s. p. 1671), and many years ago, according to Mr. A. C. Smith, in Wiltshire. Mr. Gould mentions the occurrence of one in Berkshire, in 1858, and of another more recently killed by Mr. J. H. Leche of Garden Park, Cheshire. Mr. Eodd has recorded that one was shot at Scilly, in April, 1847, and (Zool. s.s. p. 2482) another taken at Trevethoe on the north coast of Cornwall, early in January of the present year (1871). In Ireland it has occurred twice, once at Loughcrew in the county Meath in 1837, as mentioned by Thompson, and again in the spring of 1847, at Kilmore in SC0PS-0"W1.. 175 Wexford. In Scotland one example is on record which was shot in Sutherland in May or June, 1854. The story of this species having hred in Castle-Eden Dene in Durham has obtained wide currency but hardly requires serious con- tradiction. This little species is almost confined to the temperate and warmer parts of Europe and to North Africa. It does not visit Scandinavia and is rare in Holland, Belgium and North Germany. The limits of its eastward range cannot be traced. There is a specimen from Gruriefi", at the mouth of the Volga, in the Leyden Museum, and Major Irby saw it in the Crimea. Messrs. Elwes and Buckley state that it is not uncommon near Constantinople, where it breeds ; but they did not observe it elsewhere in Turkey. In Greece Dr. Lindermayer says it breeds in small numbers in Attica but not in the Peloponnesus. In the Cyclades Dr. Erhard states that it is common and resident ; but in Corfu Col. Drummond-Hay noticed that it arrived about the loth of April and Lord Lilford observed it there so late as the 17th of November. In Palestine it is a migrant, returning in spring. It is a bird of passage in Egypt, and extends to Sennaar and Abyssinia in winter. Under the name of Ma roof it is well known all over Algeria, where it breeds. Returning to Europe it is by no means rare in Portugal, and in Spain is everywhere abundant, even haunting the towns, where its clear ringing note may be nightly heard.* It is not common in France though occurring yearly, and even breeding, says Vieillot, near Paris. In Provence some pass the winter, but by far the greater number leave the country in autumn, at which time they are remarkably fat, and return at the beginning of April. In ^taly, in like manner, it arrives in spring and breeds, but in Sardinia it is said by Dr. Cara to be stationary. This Owl is remarkable for the constancy and regularity with which it utters its plaintive and monotonous cry sound- * Lord Lilford was told by a Spanish lady that in Andalucia this species and the Barn-Ovvl entered the churches to drink tiie oil in the lamps ke]it liurniug there, and that it accordingly hehoved all good Christians to kill them ! 176 STKIOID.E. ing like " kew, kew," and pronounced at intervals of about two seconds throughout the livelong night. " Towards the end of Ajn'il last year," says the celebrated entomologist, Spence, writing in 1831, (Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 655), " one of these Owls established itself in the large Jardin Anglais, behind the house where we resided at Florence ; and, until our departure for Switzerland in the beginning of June, I recollect but one or two instances in which it was not constantly to be heard, as if in spite to the Nightingales which abounded there, from nightfall to midnight (and pro- bably much later) , whenever I chanced to be in the back part of the house, or took our friends to listen to it, and always with precisely the same unwearied cry, and the intervals between each as regular as the ticking of a pendulum." Thompson relates that when proceeding from ]\Ialta to the Morea on the 25th of April, 1841, at a distance of about sixty miles from the coast of Calabria, the nearest land, an Owl of this species on its northward flight came on board the ship, and was captured just as itself had clutched a Lesser Whitethroat. Mr. J. H. Guruey, Junior, has noticed that the Scops- Owl resembles the Little Owl in its flight, but that it has a much more attenuated appearance when perched, except it be asleep. Then the feathers are so puffed out that the head is undistinguishable from the body. It may be remarked that the attitude assumed by Owls varies much in the different species and is often highly characteristic, though seldom correctly delineated by the draughtsman, who generally makes the posture and expression of the Tawny Owl serve for all the rest. This little Owl, according to Sir Andrew Smith, goes as far south in Africa as Senegal ; but the species described by Swainsou, under the name of Scops scnegalensis, is distinct from that found in Europe, and both are distinct from that named S. capcnsis by Sir Andrew Smith, which is found at the Cape. By his kindness I have been enabled to compare the European Scops with both the African species. To the eastward the European Scops is represented by an Indian SCOPS-OWL. 177 species, known among other names as S. bakkamcena, with which some ornithologists regard the ^S*. japon'icus of China and Japan as identical, while others unite this latter to the European bird.* The beak is black ; the irides bright yellow ; the feathers of the facial disk minutely speckled with greyish- white and brown, the margin of the disk on each side defined by a darker brown line ; from the beak over the top of the head several longitudinal streaks of dark brown on a pale brown ground, forming a median band passing over the head between the tufts, which are short, made up of a few feathers slightly elongated, differing but little in colour from the grey, speckled feathers of the facial disk ; the back chestnut and pale wood-brown, mottled with grey, and barred with dark lines ; the outer web of the wing-feathers barred alter- nately with white and speckled brown ; tail barred and spotted with black, brown and pale wood-brown ; the whole of the breast and belly varied with greyish- white and pale broAvn, with several decided streaks and patches of umber-brown ; under tail-coverts and tail-feathers beneath greyish-white, mottled and barred transversely with brown ; feathers of the tarsus brownish-grey with a median streak ; toes brown ; claws white at the base, nearly black at the tip. Adult males and females are very similar in plumage, but young birds have a more rufous tinge. Length about seven inches. * North AmeriCcais inhabited by an allied species, »S'. asio (Linn.), of which an example was recorded by Dr. Hobson in the 'Natu-alist' for 1855 (p. 169) as having been shot near Kivkstall Abbey in Yorkshire in 1852; and, according to Mr. Stevenson, another specimen is supposed to have been killed near Yarmoutli in Norfolk. VOL. 1. 178 A CiJIPlTRES. STRIGID.E. >^TRIit also Europe, and the former the New World. 1H2 STRTGID.E, upper part of the breast witb an indistinct brown and white transverse band, below greyish-white with longitudinal spots of clove-brown ; under tail-coverts white ; tail beneath dull grejdsh-brown, barred with yellow-brown : hair-like feathers covering the legs, and bristles of the toes, white ; the claws black. The whole length of this bird is about eight inches and a half. The females are rather larger than the males, and the general colour of their plumage is paler. According to Bechstein, in the young birds before the first moult, " the head is of a soft reddish-grey, clouded with white. The large round spots on the back become gradually more marked ; and the reddish-white of the under part by degrees acquires long streaks of brown on the breast and sides." HAWK-OWL. AVCIPITRE8. 183 UTRIOID.E. SujRNiA FUNEREA (Liimaeus*). THE HAWK-OWL. Sui^nia funerea. SuRNiA, Dumirilf. — Beak decurved from tlie base and miicli hidden by feathers ; nostrils small and rounded ; cere short ; upper mandible slightly undulated; lower mandible notched. Facial disk nearly obsolete. Orifice of the ears small, without operculum. Wings .short, first quill-feather equal to seventh, second longer than fifth, third and fourth longest and nearly equal. Tarsi rather short and, with the toes, thickly feathered. Tail long and gra- duated. Head flat and without tufts. An Owl of this species, subsequently presented by Dr. Burkitt to the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, was taken, * Sir ix funerea, Linuceus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 133 (1766). t Zoologie Analytique, p. 54 (1806). 184 STRIGID/E. in an exhausted state, on board a collier, a few miles off the coast of Cornwall, in March, 1830. On the arrival of the vessel at Waterford, whither she was hound, the bird was given to a friend of Dr. Burkitt, with whom it lived for a few weeks, and then came into his possession. Such was the account given by the late Mr. William Thompson when exhibiting the specimen at a meeting" of the Zoological Society in 1835, and published in its ' Proceedings ' for that year (page 77). Four other examples have since occurred. On a sunny afternoon in August, 1847, as recorded by Mr. E. T. Higgins (Zool. p. 3029), a bird of this species was shot near Yatton in Somersetshire while hawking for prey ; and the specimen is now in Mr. Borrer's collection. Mr. Saxby has forwarded the information that one was killed at Scaa, in Unst, in the winter of 1860—61, and that its skin came into his possession. Mr. Robert Gray states that in December, 1863, he examined a very fine specimen which was shot at Maryhill near Glasgow, and exhibited at a meeting of the Natural History Society of that city, by Dr. Dewar in whose collection it now is. Mr. Gray adds that another example was taken in the flesh to a bird-stuffer at Greenock, in November, 1868, which was procured by Mr. William Boyd, and is supposed to have been killed at no great distance from that town. This species inhabits the pine forests of the more northern parts of both hemispheres, and in the Old World its range extends from Norway to the Amoor-country and Kamtchatka. The precise southern limits of its breeding-district do not seem to have been determined, but in Scandinavia they are believed to be not lower than 57° N. lat. Thence it wanders at times, and especially in winter, to Denmark, Belgium and Germany, having been o])tained so far southward as Metz in Lorraine andLaxenburg in Austria. In America it is rarely seen so far south as Pennsylvania, and there only in severe winters. It does not inhabit either Iceland or Greenland. The most recent account of the habits of this species has been supplied by travellers in the North of Europe. The late Mr. Wolley, in a letter to the Editor, (part of which HAWK-OWL. 185 was printed in the ' Zoologist ' for 1854) says that this bird, which in some years is extremely abundant in Lapland, " flies much in the daytime, and, with its long tail, short, sharp wings and quick flight has a very Hawk-like appear- ance in the air, when its large square head is not seen. Its cry near its nest is also similar to a Hawk's ; and it often sits on the bare top of an old dead fir, and has not the least fear of a gun. It carries itself much after the fashion of the more regular Owls ; but whilst all the feathers at the back give a great breadth to its full face, there is quite a table at the top of its head. It casts its bright yellow eyes downwards with the true air of half-puzzled wisdom, or turns its head round for a leisurely gaze in another direction ; to glance backwards is out of the ques- tion, and to look at anyone with a single eye is much be- neath its dignity. From my window I have seen it fly down from its stand and take ths mouse it caught back to the tree before it began to eat it ; but it shifted its place several times before it found a convenient spot for finishing the meal. I do not know whether it is in the habit of also hunt- ing on the wing, but this year mice are so abundant that such exertion would be superfluous. When disabled from flight, it at once squares itself for defence, putting on its most formidable countenance, guarding its back and pre- senting its front to the enemy. Calmly and silently it main- tains its ground, or springs from a short distance on its foe. So bravely it dies, without a thought of glory and without a chance of fame, for of its kind there are no cowards." Subsequently the same excellent observer had numerous opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Hawk-Owl's mode of breeding, and found that early in the year it oc- cupies a hole in a tree, or one of the nest-boxes set up by the people for the accommodation of Ducks, in which the hen- bird lays from five to eight white eggs, measuring from 1-63 to 1-43 by 1-26 to 1-13 in. The nest is boldly defended by its owners, and especially by the cock, who during incubation will fiercely attack and with his talons seriously wound any invader, often losing his life thereby. The late Mr. Wheel- VOL. I. B B 186 SrRIGlDiE. Wright also bears testimony, so far as his much shorter ex- perience goes, to the same general effect, adding that the Hawk- Owl will strike down the Siberian Jay while on the wing, and that he has more than once found it feeding on the Willow-Grouse ; but smaller birds and mice of various kinds together with insects form its usual prey. In the Fur-countries of North America Eichardson says the Hawk-Owl is resident and abundant throughout the year, constantly attending the flocks of Ptarmigan on their spring migrations to the northward. " When the hunters," he adds, "are shooting Grouse, this bird is occasionally at- tracted by the report of a gun, and is often bold enough, on a bird being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable from its size to carry it off. It is also known to hover round the fires made by the natives at night." A specimen killed in Lapland, and presented to the Zoolo- gical Society by Captain Everett, has the beak white ; the irides straw-yellow ; facial disk dull white, bounded on the sides by a semilunar dark purplish-brown patch extending from the ears downwards ; head, back of the neck, and upper part of the shoulders, mottled with dusky black and dull white ; back and wings dark umber-brown ; loAver part of the back barred with dull white ; tertials elongated, loose, and downy, covering great part of the wing, and barred alternately with dusky brown and white ; tail above dusky brown, with six or seven narrow bars and a broader terminal band of dull white. Chin dusky ; throat and a band across the upper part of the breast dull white ; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, dull white, with numerous narrow bars of dusky brown ; tail beneath barred alternately with greyish- brown and dull white ; feathers of the tarsi and toes greyish- white ; claws white at the base, tijDped with bluish-black. The whole length of the bird is about seventeen inches, the female being somewhat larger than the male. This species has been much confounded by nomenclators with Tengmalm's and the Short-eared Owl. SNOWY OWT, ACaiPITRES. 187 STRIGID.'E. Nyctea scandiaca (Linnaeus*). THE SNOWY OWL. Siirnin )ijictca\. NvcTEA, Stephens +. — Beak decurved from the base ; nostrils large, oval; cere short ; upper mandible smooth, lower mandible notched. Facial disk incomplete. Orifice of the ear.s moderate, without opercixlum. Wings of moderate size ; the third qiiill-feather the longest, second and fourth nearly equal. Tail rounded and of moderate length. Legs and toes thickly covereil with feathers. Head large, round, not furnished with tufts of feathers. This beautiful species was first ascertained to occur in * Strix scandiaca, Linneeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 132 (1766). f Strix nyctea, Linnaeus (loc. cil.) + General Zoology, xiii. part ii. p. 62 (1826). ]S8 STRTGTD/E. Britain by the late Dr. Edmonston, who, early in the present century, as he informed Macgillivray, found one hung up as a scarecrow in the Shetland Islands,* He next saw one in the isle of Unst, which a few days afterwards he shot ; and, in 1812, presented the skin to Bullock, with whom it remained until the disposal by sale, in 1819, of his collec- tion. It was then bought for the British Museum, where it now is. Bullock himself, in July, 1812, saw a bird of this species, which he was unable to procure, in North Ronaldsey, one of the Orkneys, and heard of it in Westrey and else- where, and his account being communicated to Montagu, was by that naturalist published, in 1813, in the Appendix to his ' Ornithological Dictionary,' with the additional infor- mation that Bullock had about two years previously received a specimen from Norwich, in which neighbourhood, he was assured, it had been killed. It has since been shown by Thompson, in his ' Birds of Ireland,' that in the autumn of 1812 there is good reason to believe that a Snowy Owl was taken on the south coast of that island, and thus it would seem that the species was recognized as a visitor to all three kingdoms almost simultaneously. But at that time Mon- tagu and others believed that the Snowy Owl bred on the islands of Unst and Yell, though Edmonston appears always to have doubted the story ; and, since this species had received a Shetland name, " Katyogle," which has been also applied to the Short-eared Owl, a mistake seems at any rate possible. It is nowadays allowed on all sides that the Snowy Owl does not breed at liberty in any part of Britain, though it has occurred in every month of the year. This species has been observed so frequently in the British Islands that an enumeration of the different instances is unnecessary. In some one or other of the Shetlands and Orkneys it appears almost every year, and, according to Mr. Saxby, usually after a northerly wind. On the mainland of * Macgillivray says this happened in 1808, but Edmonston, in his paper in the 'Memoirs of the Wernerian Society' (vol. iv. p. 157) says, "I fell in with this species first in Zetland in 1811, and in the following spring I shot an adult male, which I shortly after presented to Mr. Bullock." SNOWY OWL. 189 Scotland it has been obtained once or oftener in most of the Highland counties and those bordering the Firth of Clyde. The same is the case in the islands of Mull, lona and Sk^'e ; while in the Outer Hebrides it may be regarded, says Mr. Eobert Gray, as an almost regular spring visitant. In England it has occurred at least thrice in Northumber- land, once in Yorkshire, seven or eight times in Norfolk, once in Suflblk and once in Devonshire. In Ireland the recorded occurrences are not much less numerous, and beside the example before mentioned, which seems to have been noticed in the county Wexford in 1812, others have been observed in Cork, Tipperary, Longford, Mayo — where several specimens have been obtained, Donegal, Tyrone, Antrim, Armagh and Down. The Snowy Owl is a truly Arctic bird, inhabiting the more northern parts of both hemispheres, not usually haunting the woodlands, as does the last species ; but frequenting the open and mountainous districts. It has several times occurred in the Fteroes ; but visits Iceland and Spitsbergen only as a straggler, though observed by Mr. Gillett to be very common along the coast of Nova Zembla. It is a bird very well known to the Laplanders, and, regulating its movements by those of the lemmings, occasionally follows those destructive little rodents along the mountain ranges to lower latitudes, generally keeping, however, above the limit at which trees gi'ow on the fells. It is thus often found to breed abun- dantly in a district wherein for many years before it had only been known as a straggler. The nest consists of a little moss or lichen and a few feathers, generally placed on a ledge of rock, where there is a slight hollow ; but at times the eggs lie on the bare ground. They are from six to eight or even more in number, white, and measure from 2-44 to 2-1 in. by from 1-84 to 1*68 in. According to information supplied by a correspondent in Labrador to Mr. Hubert Hawkins (Ibis, 1870, p. 298) they "are not all laid and brooded at one time, but the first two are often hatched by the time the last is laid, so that you may find in one nest young birds and fresh eggs, and others more or 190 STRIGIDJ:. less incubated." In Lapland Wolley several times met with people who had found nests of this species, and was told that the birds sometimes attack persons who approach their homes. He never succeeded in obtaining the eggs ; but in 1843, Prof. Lilljeborg found a nest on the fells between ffisterdal and Gudbrandsdal in the middle of Norway ; and in 1862 Wheelwright procured six eggs from a nest found by some Laplanders to the north of Quickjock in Sweden, Since then many have been obtained both from northern Lapland and from Labrador, and specimens may be seen in many collections. Richardson, whose long sojourn in the Fur countries of North America renders him an excellent authority, when describing the habits of the Snowy Owl says : — " It hunts in the day ; and, indeed, unless it could do so, it would be unfit to j^a-ss the summer within the Arctic Circle. When seen on the barren grounds, it was generally squatting on the earth, and, if put up, it alighted again after a short flight ; but was always so wary as to be approached with great difficulty. In the wooded districts it shows less caution ; and, according to Hearne, has been known to watch the Grouse- shooters a whole day, for the purpose of sharing in the spoil. On such occasions, it perches on a high tree, and when a bird is shot, skims down and carries it off" before the sportsman can get near it. It preys on lemmings, hares, and birds, particularly the Willow-grouse and Ptarmigan. Mr. Hutchins says that it eats carrion ; and Wilson informs us that it is a dexterous fisher, grasping its finny prey with an instantaneous stroke of the foot as it sails along near the surface of the water, or sits on a stone in a shallow stream. I have seen it pursue the American hare on the wing, making repeated strokes at the animal with its foot." In illustration of this last habit it may be stated that in Sweden the common name for the Snowy Owl is Harfdng or "Hare-catcher;" and in corroboration of its propensity for carrion, as mentioned by Hutchins, reference may be made to the observation of Admiral von Wrangell, during his perilous expedition to the Polar Sea, that it " follows the SNOWY OWL. 191 White Bear to feed on the remains of its prey." Notwith- standing this fact the flesh of the Snowy Owl, the hird being usually exceedingly fat, is held in high esteem as an article of food by the Laplanders, and, according to Mr. Reeks, by the settlers in Newfoundland. There is little doubt that the same taste was common to the ancient inhabitants of the South of France, since the bones of this bird, associated with those of the Rein -Deer and other northern animals, have been recognized by Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards among the kitchen-refuse found in caverns there, testifying thus to the existence of an Arctic climate at a former epoch in that now sunny region. The weird appearance of this species, combined with the desolation of its haunts and the stories told of its attacks on passers-by render it an object of considerable dread among the less-educated Laplanders, and on one occasion a boy asked Wolley, if it could really be a bird. Wheelwright, writing of the species, says : — " Its shriek when on the wing resembles a loud ' krau-au,' repeated three or four times ; but it is seldom heard except when the bird is excited. Some of the movements of this bird are very extraordinary, and I once saw one fall from a considerable height on to the ground, where it lay for some time perfectly motionless, with out- stretched wings, as if it were shot. I tried to come up within gunshot, but it rose out of distance, and sailed away uttering a wild loud cry, ' Rick, rick, rick,' as if mocking me." Other observers describe the note of this species as a low, whining wail. To return to the localities visited by this bird in our own day. It has been met with in Denmark and is said to have occurred in Holland, and once in northern France. Further eastward it is less scarce, and according to Dr. Borggreve it visited Prussia and Pomerania in considerable numbers in the winters of 1858-59 and 1865-66. The same authority also states that it has occurred in Silesia and Upper Lusatia, while, on Herr von Pelzeln's shewing, it would seem to have once occurred in Lower Austria. As with so many other species its limits in Asia are not to be traced, but Mr. 192 STRIGID/E. Hume (Ibis, 1871, p. 410) has lately received an example from Murdan in the Indus valley ; thus proving its southern range in the Old World to be not much less extensive than it is known to be in America, where Mr. Dresser records it, on the late Dr. Heermann's authority, as having occurred at San Antonio in Texas (Ibis, 1865, p. 330). On the western coast of North America, however, its distribution is more limited, and though it occurs in Vancouver's Island and British Columbia, up to the present time Prof. Baird says it has not been recognized in California. In its migratory flights the Snowy Owl does not hesitate to betake itself to the broad ocean : it has more than once been ob- served in the Bermudas, and a very interesting account has been given by Thompson of a flock which accompanied a ship halfway across the Atlantic from the coast of Labrador to the North of Ireland. This happened in November, 1838, and it is worthy of remark that not many days after this event, the example, already mentioned as having occurred in Devonshire, was picked up dead at St. John's Lake, near Devonport. Its skin is now in the collection of Mr. W. S. Hore of that place. The Snowy Owl bears confinement well, and in the aviary of Mr. Edward Fountaine, whose unrivalled success in treating tame Owls has before been mentioned, the hen bird of a pair laid a single egg in the summer of 1870, and four eggs in that of 1871 ; but, though she sat on the latter, no young were hatched. It was formerly supposed (as was also imagined to be the case with the Greenland Falcon) that the first feathers of the young Snowy Owl were dark in colour, and that the birds became whiter as they grew older. A specimen of a nestling in the British Museum negatives this supposition. The Owlet, it is true, is originally covered with down of a sooty-black colour, each tuft having a brownish-buff tip ; but the first feathers assumed are indistinguishable from those which the adult wears, being of brilliant white with more or fewer black or very dark brown spots or bars. The birds, however, vary very much, and in some the plumage SNOWY OWL. 193 is almost free from dark markings. The variation, as in the case of the Greenland Falcon, seems to be purely individual, for specimens of either sex may be obtained representing its extreme limits, while examples kept in confinement exhibit no perceptible change consequent upon age. The dark marks when present are situated towards the end of the feather ; and on the under surface are semi- lunar in shape, while those on the back and wings are more linear. The feathers forming the incomplete facial disk, those of the upper part of the breast, and also the downy feathers defending the legs and toes, are pure white ; the beak and claws are black ; both are partially hidden by feathers, and the latter long, curved and very sharp. The irides are bright orange-yellow. The whole length of the Snowy Owl is from twenty-two to twenty-seven inches, the difference depending on the sex : the females are much the larger of the two. The vignette below represents the crystalline lens and the bony ring of the eye in this bird, which may be compared with those of the Eagle before figured (page 19). Prof. Nilsson has incontestably shewn that the Strix scandiaca of Linnaeus, though originally figured and de- scribed by error as a tufted Owl, was founded upon an example of this species, and the trivial name of his iS'. nyctea, which no one ever doubted to be the Snowy Owl, having been used for the genus by Stephens, it thus seems only proper to recur to the former as the distinctive appel- lation of this bird. VOL. T. c c 194 ACOIPJTRES. STRIGID.E. r STRIGID^fi. Aluco flammeus (Linineus*), THE BARN-OWL. Si fix finmmca. Aluco, Flemhujf. — Beak straight at tbe base, decurved only towards the point ; cutting margin of the upper mandible nearly straight, under mandible notched. Nostrils oval, oblique. Facial disk large and complete, narrowing rapidly below the eyes towards the beak. Auditory opening square, large, and furnished with a large and nearly rectangular operculum, stiffened with the .shafts of small feathers. Wings long and ample ; the first and third quills equal and nearly as long as the second, which is the longest. Tail shortish. Legs long and slender, clothed with downy feathers to the origin of the toes, which are only furnished on the upper surface with a few bristle-like feathers ; hind toe reversible ; claws long, and grooved underneath, that of the middle toe serrated on the inner edge. Head smooth, not furnished with tufts. * Strix flammea, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 1S3 (1766). + Philosophy of Zoology, ii. p. 236 (1822). BARN-OWL. 195 Natukalists, as has been already said (page 150), have hitherto generally considered our well-known Barn-Owl the type of the Linnoean genus Stri.v ; but it has been shewn that Brisson, who first divided the group, applied that designation to the Tawny Owl, which he thus fixed as the generic type, at the same time describing the Barn-Owl under the apjiellation of Ahico, a term subsequently used by Fleming as the name of the very distinct genus to which this species belongs. Few authors indeed have followed the example so set, and it is not without serious consideration that the Editor here adopts what may be productive of some confusion ; but the worst evils which beset scientific nomen- clature being only avoidable by strict obedience to the rules which have been laid down for its governance, he feels bound to abide by them even in the present case. Still by whatever name the Baru-Owl may be called, it, with its allied species, as previously mentioned (page 149) forms a group possessing many characters not found in the other Owls, and the importance of this difference should not be overlooked whether the genus be termed Aluco or Strix. Unlike the species last described, the Barn-Owl is resident in this country throughout the year, and is so peculiar in the colouring of its plumage, and so generally diffused, that it is probably the best known of all the British species of Owls. It inhabits churches, barns, old malt-kilns, or deserted ruins and also hollow trees. If unmolested, the same haunts are frequented, either by the same pair of birds or their offspring, for many years in succession. As destroyers of rats and mice, and that to a great extent, the services rendered by Barn- Owls to the agriculturist have obtained for this species at least toleration, while by some it is, as it deserves to be, strictly protected in return for benefits received. Unless disturbed, these birds seldom leave their retreat during the day, and if the place of concealment be ap- proached with caution, and a view of the bird obtained, it will generally be observed to have its eyes closed, as if asleep. About sunset the pair of Owls, particularly when they have young, issue forth in quest of food, and may be 196 STRICT D^. observed flapping gently along, searching lanes, hedge-rows, orchards, and small enclosures near out-buildings. " In this irregular country," says White of Selborne, " we can stand on an eminence, and see them beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn." They feed on rats, mice, shrews, small birds, and less com- monly on insects, parts of all of which have been recognized at diff'erent times on examination of the rejected pellets, which are generally to be found in abundance near any favourite place of their resort. Waterton, in whom the Barn-Owl found an able and grateful advocate, truly observes that if this bird usually caught its food by day, instead of by night, mankind would have ocular demon- stration of its utility in thinning the country of mice ; but, though several times seen by him and others mousing in broad daylight under a cloudless summer's sky, to form a proper idea of the number it destroys we must have recourse to the means above stated. It has also been known to catch fishes which frequent shallow water, but this habit seems to be very exceptional. " When farmers complain," he continues (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. p. 13) " that the Barn-Owl destroys the eggs of their pigeons, they lay the saddle on the wrong horse. They ought to put it on the rat. Formerly I could get very few young pigeons till the rats were excluded effectually from the dovecot. Since that took place, it has produced a great abundance every year, though the Barn- Owls frequent it and are encouraged all around it." In further proof of which assertion he conclusively urges the indiiference shewn by Pigeons towards Owls compared with their alarm at the sight of a Hawk. The Barn-Owl commonly lays from two to six eggs, which are elongate and of a dull white, measuring from 1*78 to 1*53 by from 1*27 to 1*18 in. It breeds later in the year than most other Owls — seldom till towards the end of April. Waterton once found a half-fledged Owlet in the nest in December, but from May to July is the usual time for the young, which are at first covered with thick white down, to be hatched. Not unfrequently, as with some other Owls, a BARN-OWL. 197 second or even a third laying takes place before the first family leaves the nest, so that Owlets of at least three dif- ferent ages may be found in one nursery, while this contin- uous succession at times goes on for some months, it being probable that the warmth of the earlier birds materially aids the development of the unhatched chicks, during the nightly absence of the parents in quest of food, while their labour in supporting so large a family must be more easily borne by being spread over so long a period. The usual note of this species is a loud scream, often uttered while on the wing ; the young in the nest make a snoring noise. The Barn-Owl is common in all the counties of England ; and, according to Thompson, is also the most common Owl in Ireland. In Scotland its distribution is less wide, for though common in the Lowlands and more southern parts of the Highlands, it becomes rare towards the north. In the Hebrides Mr. Gray has only been able to trace it in Mull and Islay. Low states that it bred in Hoy, but it has not recently been seen in the Orkneys, and there seems to be no record of its appearance in the Shetlands or further to the northward. It does not inhabit either Norway or Sweden, but a single example is said to have occurred once at Ystad in the extreme south of the latter. It is rare in Denmark, and its distribution is limited to the mainland and some only of the islands which form that kingdom. It is not found in Finland. In North Germany it is a well-known though not very common resident. Over the more temperate part of the European continent it is generally diffused, and its range extends eastward, as far at least as Mesopotamia, whence there is a specimen in the East India Museum, and southward to Quilimane on the east and to Angola on the west coast of Africa — the late Dr. Dickerson having ob- tained a specimen at the former and there being one from the latter in the Lisbon Museum. It was also found breeding in Madagascar by Mr. Edward Newton, and it occurs in the Atlantic islands — the Azores and Madeira. Whether it has not a further range in the Old World cannot at present be determined, for authorities do not agree as to 198 STlUGfD.E. the specific distinctness or identity of the Barn-Owls of China, India, the Cape Colony and other countries, which have been described as differing more or less from that of Europe. The Barn-Owls of the New World have been con- sidered to form one or more separate species, but it is doubt- ful whether this view can be justifiably maintained, for no constant diiierence can be detected in a large series of speci- mens from the two worlds. As the American bird to which the name Strix j^raf/^co/a has been assigned is said to be distributed from Long Island on the east and the Columbia River on the west coast, southward through Central America and some of the greater Antilles to South America generally, it follows that if it, and the other birds just referred to, be really identical with our Barn-Owl, this species must have a range little inferior to that of the Short-Eared Owl. In an old male the beak is almost white ; irides black ; facial disk stained with rust-colour at the inner and lower part of each eje, the margin of the disk defined by the white feathers being tij^ped with brown ; top of the head and the neck very pale buft", thinly spotted with black and white ; back and wings darker bufl" speckled with grey, and spotted with black and white ; upper surface of tail-feathers pale buft', with five transverse grey bars ; all the under parts pure white ; the toes dusky, the claws brown. The wings reach beyond the end of the tail, and the edges of the wing and tail-feathers have the aj^pearance of being worn, the fibres forming the web being of unequal length, and the wings of these birds therefore, when moved in the air, make very little or no noise. In some specimens, generally found on dissection to be females or young males, the under surface of the body is fawn-colour. The whole length of the bird is about fourteen inches. A good deal of local variation is observable in this species, and in particular Danish examples are very darkly coloured, having the facial disk of a rusty-red. Mr. Stevenson has recorded the occurrence in Norfolk of such a specimen, which was probably an accidental visitor to this country of foreign origin. GREAT GRE^ SHRIKE. PASSERES. 199 LAKII'DJ'.. Lanius excubitor, Linnaeus*. THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE. Lanius exenhifor. Lanius, Linineiisf. — Bill short, thick and straight at the base, compressed ; upper mandible hooked at the point, with a prominent tooth ; base of the bill beset with hairs directed forwards. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval. Wings of moderate size ; the first quill-feather shorter than the second, the third the longest. Tarsus longer than the middle toe, which is united at its base to the outer toe. The Great Grey Shrike, the largest British species of the genus is a regular but not very common winter visitor to this country. On a few occasions it has been seen during summer ; yet it has never been ascertained to breed here, — though it commonly does so in Holland, Belgium and northern France, and the large size of the nest and the variable colour and markings of the eggs of the Red-backed Shrike have in some instances led to the belief that they belonged to the Great Shrike. Sjst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 135 (1766). t Tom. cit. p. 134. 200 LANIID/E. The Great Shrike feeds upon mice, shrews, small birds, frogs, lizards, and large insects. After having lulled its prey, it fixes the body in a forked branch, or upon a sharp thorn, the more readily, as is supposed, to pull off small pieces from it. It is from this habit of killing and hanging up their meat, which is observed also in other Shrikes, that they have been generally called Butcher-birds. Part of a letter from Mr. Henry Doubleday of Epping, in reference to the Great Shrike, is as follows : — " An old bird of this species, taken near Norwich in October 1835, lived in my possession twelve months. It became very tame, and would readily take its food from my hands. When a bird was given it, it invariably broke the skull, and generally ate the head first. It sometimes held the bird in its claws, and pulled it to pieces in the manner of Hawks, — but seemed to prefer forcing part of it through the wires, then pulling at it. It always hung what it could not eat up on the sides of the cage. It would often eat three small birds in a day. In the spring it was very noisy, one of its notes a little resem- bling the cry of the Kestrel." Sheppard and Whitear state that Hoy having observed a Great Shrike frequenting a thick hedge near his house, found on examination three frogs and as nnuiy mice spitted on the thorns. As the l)ird was so shy as not to be approached within gunshot, he set six small steel traps, each baited with a mouse. On the follow- ing day two of the traps were sprung and the baits gone. Hiding himself and watching, he soon afterwards saw the Shrike dart down upon a bait and rise perpendicularly, but this time not quickly enough, as it was caught by two of its toes. INIr. Blackwall has recorded of this species that a bird- catcher near Manchester, having arranged the cage contain- ing his call-bird, and set limed twigs about it, a Great Shrike flew to the cage and was caught. Having placed it in a dark cage with the Redpolls he had previously taken, he was surprised and mortified, on reaching home, to find it had killed all its fellow-captives. A Shrike, as recorded in the 'Zoological Journal' (ii. p. 26), which was taken alive GRExYT GREY SHRIKE. 201 in a clap-net near London, in the act of striking at the call- bird, throve well in confinement, but was readily parted with by its possessor, who found that its note, once heard, stopped the song of all his other birds. It is said to have con- siderable power of voice, and sufficient flexibility to enable it to imitate the notes of some of the smaller birds, and thus attract them within its reach. Whether the last assertion be true or not, there is no doubt that the Shrike itself is ingeniously made use of by the Dutch falconers during autumn and winter when catching Passage Hawks. The whole manner of proceeding cannot be here described in detail,* for the apparatus used is complicated, but perhaps the following will suffice. The Shrike is tethered near a hut, wherein, half-buried in the ground, the falconer lies hidden, watching through a small hole his sentinel, which by its actions not only gives him notice of the approach of a Bird-of-prey, but also indicates to some extent of what kind the stranger is : thus, according to Prof. Schlegel, whose magnificent treatise on Falconry has been before mentioned in these pages, the Shrike is but slightly troubled at a passing Kite, Buzzard or Eagle, but beats itself on its perch with loud screams at the sight of a Harrier, while on the appearance of a Falcon or Sparrow-Hawk the vedette drops with cries of distress into a retreat which has been con- siderately provided for it.f On this the falconer, by pulling long strings, displays first one and then a second tethered Pigeon, previously concealed under sods of turf, and, the instant the Hawk clutches the last Pigeon, draws a bow-net over both, thus securing his prize. Selby, writing from personal observation, states that the * There is a good account of it by Hoy (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 342). t "The signs of alarm, " adds the same excellent authority in a note (Trait(5 de la Fauconuerie, p. 44), "which the Shrike gives, vary infinitely, not only according to the si^ecies of Bird-of-prey which appears, but also according to the mode by which it approaches —whether slowly or quickly, gliding over the ground or soaring aloft, and so on. It is impossible, without having observed them attentively, to have an idea of the astonishing instinct of these little beings, whose habits must be carefully studied before one is able to judge correctly the motives of all their movements." VOL. I. r> r> 202 LANIID.E. flight of the Great Shrike is " interrupted, heing performed by jerks ; iuid when perched, the tail is kept in constant motion." It frequents groves and forests, and builds on trees at some distance from the ground, making a nest of roots, bents, and moss, lined with wool and feathers, the latter appearing over the brim of the nest. The eggs are from four to seven in number, white tinged with green, or occasionally cream-colour, blotched irregularly with olive- green, wood-brown and dull lilac of various shades : the markings being sometimes suffused over the greater part of the shell, at others collected into a more or less distinct zone. The eggs measure from 1*17 to 1*01 by from '83 to '75 in. The Great Grey Shrike has been obtained in most if not in all of the English counties, and in some very many times. It has also occurred in Wales, though the records of its appearance there are not numerous, probably from the scarcity of observers. In Ireland it has been several times obtained, chiefly, as appears from Thompson's statements, in the north. According to Mr. Robert Gray it is a regular winter-visitant to the eastern parts of Scotland, but less frequently towards the interior, while further to the west its occurrence, though not uncommon, is at uncertain intervals. No examples seem to be recorded from the Hebrides, but three are mentioned by Messrs. Baikie and Heddle as having been obtained in the Orkneys, where it appears to be an occasional winter-visitant, while in the Shetlands it has been once seen by Dr. Saxby (Zool. s.s. p. 2561). It does not seem to have been observed in the Fioroes, but the Editor has been assured by Mr. John Pell, the well-known falconer, whose pro- fessional acquaintance with the Great Grey Shrike makes his testimony valuable, that in 1845 he saw a bird of this species in Iceland. It occurs over the whole of Scandinavia, breeding so far to the northward as lat. 71°, as it does in northern Russia ; and it ranges across Asia, according to Herr Radde, to South-eastern Siberia. But here a second allied species may exist and possibly have been mistaken for it. Re- turning to Europe it breeds not uncommonly in northern and central Germany, Holland and Belgium, and is said to GREAT GRKY SHRIKE. 203 be found in northern France throughout the year. Being of essentially migrant habits it occurs in winter in southern Europe ; but, as Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe have well shewn, in an able paper on this bird and its allies (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 590), as well as in their ' Birds of Europe,' its eastern and southern limits must at present be considered undetermined, since two or three species so much resembling it as to have been often mistaken for it seem to replace it in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. The ornithologists last named, who have done much to correct several errors made by writers of great repute with respect to Laniiis excuhitor and its kindred species, truly state that it may be recognized from all its congeners by the double white bar on the wing, caused by the basal half of the secondaries as well as of the primaries being of that colour. " This second bar," they continue, " is assumed gradually, and is more fully developed in adult birds, though traces of it can in most cases be discovered on a careful examination of the bases of the secondary quills." The non-appearance of this second white bar in certain specimens has induced a belief, or at least a suspicion, among some ornithologists in the occurrence in Great Britain of one of the North-American Grey Shrikes — the so-called L. cxciihi- toroides of Swainson, now shewn by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser to be identical with the well-known L. Indovicianus; but it seems probable that, most of the Grey Shrikes taken in this island being birds of the year, the second bar in these specimens is not much developed and may be easily overlooked. That such is the case may be gathered from Mr, Piobert Gray's remark that nearly all the Scottish examples which have come under his notice, while possessing but one spot on the wing, have the under parts irregularly barred or minutely freckled— an unmistakable sign of youth in this species, though observable at all ages in the larger Grey Shrike of North America, L. horeaUs, and, according to Pallas, in another species described by him under the name of L. major ,- the existence of this last, which is said to come from Siberia, has however been doubted. To the 204 LANllDJ^. east and south-east of the countries inhabited by L. excu- hltor, there occurs a smaller species, L. lahtora, at various times mistaken for our bird, which is again replaced to the south-west by two large forms, L. algeriensls and L. meri- dionalis, the first being a resident in North Africa, and the last a summer-visitor to the south of Europe. In the old male, the bill is black, except the base of the lower mandible, which is yellowish-brown. The forehead and a line over each eye white ; the lores, cheeks and ear- coverts black ; all the upper plumage of the body, from the head to the rump, pearl-grey (the shade varying much in different examples), the scapulars, and often the tail-coverts, being tipped with white ; wing-coverts black, those nearest the fore- arm greyish : quill-feathers of the wing black with a white bar at the base, forming, when the wing is closed, two white spots ; the primaries are occasionally and the secondaries always also tipped with white. Two middle pairs of tail-feathers entirely black, the next pair black tipped with white, the succeeding pairs shewing more white, until the outermost are almost wholly so. Beneath, the markings of the tail, which is much graduated, are fully defined but less pure in colour, and the inside of the wings is pure white, the remiges only being grey beneath. Irides very dark brown ; legs, toes and claws, black. Females resemble the males, except that the colours of the plumage are not so pure, and the dull white of the breast is marked with numerous greyish semilunar lines. Young birds of both sexes are much duller in colour, and often have, as already mentioned, the double white spot on the wing feebly developed. The whole length of the Great Shrike is ten inches. Wing from the carpus to the end of the longest primary, four inches and three-quarters ; first wing-feather only half as long as the second ; the second shorter than the third, fourth, or fifth, which are nearly equal, and the longest in the wing ; the sixth but very little longer than the second. LESSER GREY SHRIKE. PASSE RES. 205 LANIID.E. Lanius minoe, J. F. Gmelin*. THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE. The Lesser Grey Shrike, being a bird of migratory habits, considerable power of flight and wide distribution on the continent of Europe, is just one of those species, whose occasional appearance in our islands might have been safely foretold. Its general resemblance also to the Shrike last described (though their distinctive characters, when once pointed out, are plain enough) is such that each may easily be mistaken for the other — and, as will be immediately seen, this has been done in one instance. Early in November, 1851, Mr. Edward Hearle Rodd, who for many years has unceasingly recorded his observations on birds in Cornwall, received a female grey Shrike, which had been killed a few * Syst Nat. i p. 308 (1788). 206 LANITD.E. days before on St. Mary's, one of the isles of Scilly. The occurrence of this bird he noticed in the ' Zoologist ' for the same year (p. 3300) under the name of Lanius exciihltor ; though, as he has kindly informed the Editor, he soon after remarked the differences between this example and an adult male of the Great Grey Shrike, in his already rich collection. In the same periodical for 1867 (p. 556) Mr. J. H. Jenkiuson gave a description of this and other speci- mens of grey Shrikes, announcing that it was pretty certain it could not be L. exciibitor, but not referring it to any known species. Subsequently the same gentleman {torn. cit. p. 606) suggested that it might belong to the American L. ludovicianus of Linnaeus, and soon afterwards its owner, Mr. Rodd, sent the specimen to Mr. Gould, by whom it was identified as the European L. minor, and figured in his * Birds of Great Britain.' Since that time Mr. Murray A. Mathew has received, from Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, a specimen obtained in a garden there in the spring of 1869 (Zool. s.s. p. 2060), the genuineness of which has been corroborated (Uwi. cit. p. 2139) by Mr. Stevenson ; and thus, two individuals of this species having unquestionably occurred in England, its introduction in the present work may be fully expected. On the continent of Europe the Lesser Grey Shrike is a summer immigrant, arriving early in spring and departing late in autumn. It is of rare occurrence in Holland, and has been obtained only once in Denmark. In the south of Sweden it has been observed two or three times, and a single example has been met with in Finland ; but south of the Baltic it is not uncommonly found, breeding throughout northern Germany from Pomerania to Luxemburg. It also visits Russia and probably extends its range into Siberia, for Menetries obtained it in Caucasia. De Filippi observed it in Persia and Canon Tristram in Palestine, where, however, it seems to be rare, though Dr. Kriiper found it breeding in Asia Minor. Turning westward, it occurs in all the countries of central and southern Europe, as far as Spain, but appears not to be common in that kingdom, nor to have been hitherto LESSER GREY SHRIKE." 207 observed in Portugal. lu Africa it ranges from north-east to south-west, frequenting, as Dr. von Heuglin states, if not residing on, the shores of the Red Sea, while, according to Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe, many specimens were sent by Andersson from Damaraland. In habits this species is said to resemble the Great Grey Shrike, but it preys less on mammals and birds, feeding chiefly on insects and at times on fruit, such as cherries, figs and mulberries. In Provence, where it is common, it fre- quents the marshy plains bordering the sea or intersected by water-courses. In North Germany a pair or two are said to haunt the orchards of most of the villages, though it is also found on the verge of the forests. Its flight, according to Vieillot, is straight and sustained. It rests often on the ground, either on a stone or a hillock, and when disturbed thence betakes itself to the woods. It builds a large and thick nest, in which green clover-stems are, according to several observers, always to be found, mixed with a few dry sticks, wool and field-flowers — mostly, it is said, those having an aromatic odour, and lined with feathers. The eggs are from five to seven in number, white, tinged with apple-green occasionally inclining to olive, and marked with large blotches, usually ill-defined but sometimes bold, of olive and ash-colour. In a few instances the eggs have been known to have the reddish tints so frequently found in those of the Pted-backed Shrike. They measure from 1*05 to "93 by from '73 to '68 in., and are usually laid at the end of May or beginning of June. This Shrike bears no other bird in its neighbourhood, and Crows especially it is said to chase away from its nest with angry cries. In the adult male, as represented by the lower figure of the woodcut, the bill, which is very stout in propor- tion to the size of the bird, is dark horn-colour, almost black ; across the forehead a broad black band passes back- ward both above and below the eyes, and forms a patch extending behind the ears. All the plumage of the body above, from the head to the rump, is of an ashy-grey, some- what lighter at either extremity. Wing-coverts brownish- 208 LANIID^. black, those in the fore-arm inclining to grey. Primaries and secondaries brownish-black, the former with a broad white band and some of the latter tipped more or less with white. Two middle pairs of tail-feathers black, the next pair white at the base and tip, the next with still more white, and the outermost, which are considerably shorter than the rest, entirely white. The plumage beneath is white, quite pure on the chin, throat and sides of the neck ; but suffused with a roseate blush, often fading into grey, on the breast and sides of the body; the lower wing-coverts blackish-grey ; the quills of the wings and tail beneath shew the markings of the upper surface but less distinctly. The legs, toes and claws, dull black. The female and immature male have the black frontal band mixed with brown, the colours generally less pure, and the breast and belly marked with hght grey transverse lines. The young, as also represented in the woodcut, has the upper surface of the body mottled with darker bars, generally two near the tip of each feather, the terminal patches of the wing-feathers being also tinged with pale brown. The whole length of the Lesser Grey Shrike is from eight to nine inches, from the carpus to the end of the longest primary, four inches and a half; the first wing-feather not so long by a third as the second, which is slightly longer than the fourth, but usually shorter than the third — the longest in the wing. The vignette below represents the breastbone of the Great Grey Shrike, and shews the form which, with comparatively few exceptions, is common to the whole of the Order Pas- seres. PASSE RES. KKD-IJACKKD SUHIKK 209 LANlJUuE. Lanius collukio, Linnaeus*. THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. Lanius coUnrio. The lower figure of the engraving rejDresents the male, and the upper figure the ordinary appearance of the female, of the Red-backed Shrike, a well-known and regular, though somewhat local, summer-visitor to this country. It arrives in Italy from Africa about the beginning of April, and reaches England by the end of that month or early in May, leaving again in September. It frequents the sides of woods and high hedge-rows, generally in pairs, and may frequently be seen perched on the uppermost branch of an isolated bush on the look-out for prey. The males have a chirping note, not unlike that of the Sparrow, which is * Syst. Nat. EO. 12, i. p. 136 (1766). VOL. I. E E 210 LANIID/E. uttered sufficiently often to form ca sort of song ; and several observers say they imitate the voice of other birds. The food of the Red-backed Shrike is mice and probably shrews, small birds, and various insects, particularly the common May-chaffer. Its inclination to attack and its power of destroying little birds has been doubted; but it has been seen to kill a bird as large as a Finch, is not unfrequently caught in bird-catchers' clap-nets, having struck at the call- birds, and is recorded as having been seen in eager chase of a Blackbird by Sheppard and Whitear. The same writers mention their having found the bill of a Red-backed Shrike coated over with cowdung, doubtless from its having been searching therein for insects. Mr. Hewitson says, that seeing a male of this species busy in a hedge, he found, upon approaching it, a small bird, upon which it had been operating, firmly fixed upon a blunt thorn ; its head was torn off, and the body entirely plucked. The nest made by this species is very large in proportion to the size of the bird, frequently measuring from six to seven inches diameter ; it is usually placed rather high in a strong hedge or thick bush, and is generally formed of coarse stalks of plants on the outside, with some moss and fibrous roots within, and lined with bents and a few hairs. The eggs are four or five in number, measuring from '95 to '82 by from -68 to '62 in., and very variable in colour, sometimes of a yellowish-, or occasionally pale olive-white, with markings of wood-brown, olive or lilac, generally well- defined, and often in distinct spots, but not unfrequently in diffused blotches, while again other eggs have a salmon- coloured ground with markings of light red of two shades and lilac, the markings in both varieties frequently forming a band or zone. The eggs have been exceedingly well repre- sented in all the editions of Mr. Hewitson's work. The Red-backed Shrike breeds more or less commonly in all the counties of England and Wales, becoming scarcer to the extreme west and north. It has not been observed in any part of Ireland, and has only of late years been recorded from Scotland, though noticed there, according to Mr. Robert REi)-15AC:KEI) SllHIKE. 211 Gray, so long ago as 1817, when a pair were shot near Hawick. Mr. iVrhuthnot in 1833, seems, however, to have been the first to puhlish the fact of the occurrence of this species in the northern kingdom ; since which time Mr. Sinclair, Prof. Duns, Dr. Gordon, Lord Haddington and Mr. Harvie Brown have recorded similar observations, shewing that, during the season of its migration, it is au occasional visitor to the eastern parts of Scotland, while in a few instances it has been seen in pairs and may possibly have bred there. Indeed there is reason to infer that it has done so even in the Shetlands ; for Dr. Saxby, who in 1866 shot au example in Unst, early in June, 1870, observed in the same island a female of this species accompanied by three young birds, one of which frequented a garden there for nearly three weeks. This Shrike occurs in summer through- out the continent of Europe excepting the Iberian peninsula, ranging as high as lat. 6-1° N., and is found in the tempe- rate parts of Siberia. De Filippi observed it everywhere in Persia, and thence it may be traced across Palestine to Africa, where, though not hitherto found to the northward of the Great Desert or of Angola on the west coast, it is very widely distributed, for ascending the valley of the Nile it occurs on both sides of the southern part of that continent as far as the confines of the Cape Colony, and, curiously enough, breeds there. The adult male has the beak black, the feathers of the forehead and lore, around the eye, and those forming the ear-coverts, black ; the irides hazel-brown ; all the upper part of the head and the neck grey ; back and wing-coverts fine chestnut-red ; U2:»per tail-coverts grey, tinged with red ; primaries dusky black, edged with red on the outer web ; secondaries and tertials the same, but with broader red margins ; tail-feathers with the proximal half white, the distal half black, just tipped with white ; the shafts black ; the two middle tail-feathers, which are longest, are wholly black except the tips, which are white ; the outer tail-feather on each side about three-eighths of an inch shorter than the others. The chin is nearlv white ; all the under surface of 212 1>.\N1ID.¥. the body very pale red ; under tail-coverts white ; legs, toes and claws, black. The length of the adult male is about seven inches and a half; the wing from the carpal joint to the end of the third and longest feather, three inches and seven-eighths ; the first feather less than half the length of the second which is nearly as long as the fourth. The adult female ordinarily has the beak dark brown ; irides hazel : no black about the head, but a light-coloured streak over the eye ; the whole of the upper surface of the head and body reddish-brown ; wings like those of the male, but the i-ufons margins narrower; tail-feathers above brown, tinged with red, the outer edge of the web of each outside tail-feather dull white ; below grey, tipped with dull white. Chin dull white : under surface of the body and the sides greyish-white, crossed with greyish-brown semilunar lines ; abdomen and under tail-coverts, dull white. The length of the female described rather exceeded that of the male. Young males are like adult females, but have the darker semi- lunar marks on the back as well as on the breast. Some particulars in reference to the female of this species require here to be noticed. Though the description just given is that of its ordinary appearance, it has been observed by various ornithologists and in different countries that occasionally a hen Red-backed Shrike is found very, if not exactly, similar in plumage to that worn by the cock. In England the fact seems to have been first noticed by Hoy, who, in 1831, recorded (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 344) his having found a nest of this species attended by two ap- parently male birds. Struck by the singularity of the fact he shot both, and " on dissection one proved the female, with the eggs much enlarged, and one nearly ready for exclusion." In 1835, Mr. Blyth met with an almost similar example : "it was," he says (Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. p. 364), "a female, partly in the male plumage ; but the ovaries were perfect, and contained eggs ; and it was in company with a partner of the other sex at the time it was shot." "I have reason to believe," he continues, " that this was a young individual ; that is to say, a bird of the preceding year." Now these RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 213 cases, and others wliicli might he cited, will be seen to hear no real analogy to the numerously-ohserved instances of the assumption of the male plumage hy the females of many gallinaceous birds, in which it is accompanied if not induced l)y a peculiar condition of the ovaries, while in the former those organs are in full vigour. Some writers have assumed that it is only the very old hen of this Shrike which acquires the cock's plumage, but Mr. Blyth's statement as to the age of the example he describes shews that the fact is not to be thus explained. In the absence of any mode of account- ing for the curious fact, it may be here suggested that this is perhaps a case of what has become of late known to zoo- logists under the name of " sexual dimorj)hism," and has now l)een frequently observed in many groups of animals. Knowing that the adult females of the Grey Shrikes and that of the Woodchat, next to be described, closely resemble their respective males, while (setting aside the exceptional cases just cited) the hen Red-backed Shrike without doubt most generally differs greatly from the cock, it is worth con- sidering whether any laws which govern the assumption by birds of peculiar styles of plumage according to their several ages and sexes can be discovered. Cuvier long ago made two assertions on this subject (Regne Animal. Paris : 3 817, i. p. 29G), which were no doubt true so far as his experience went, and they have been dignified by the name of "laws." These are : first, that when, as is most often the case, the female differs from the male by its less lively colours, the young of both sexes resemble her ; and secondly, that when the adult males and females are of the same colour, the young have a livery peculiar to themselves. To these two a third " law " has been added in former editions of the present work : namely, that whenever adult birds assume a plumage during the breeding season decidedly different in colour from that which they bear in the winter, the young birds of the year have a plumage intermediate in the general tone of its colour compared with the two periodical states of the parent birds, and bearing also indications of the colours to be afterwards attained at either period. 214 LANIID/E. It will now however be within the knowledge of most ornithologists that these so-called "laws" are subject to numerous exceptions, while they by no means include all the different cases which an extended acquaintance with the feathered creation will shew. The first of them when taken according to the precise terms in which it was enunciated seems to have the most force, but cases occur, as in some of the Woodpeckers, where the young have a plumage peculiar to themselves even when that of their parents differ sexually ; and we ought also to take up the converse of the proposition, where we find that in the rare cases in which the female possesses more lively colours than the male, the young of both sexes resemble him. To the second of these " laws " exceptions are more plentiful even among common British birds ; for in many of the Crows and in the Kingfisher, where the sexual differences of the adults are exceedingly slight, the young have no plumage that can be called pecu- liar to themselves. Nor are cases far to seek in which the third " law " will not apply ; for in the Razor-bill and the Common Guillemot, where the breeding plumage of both sexes is alike and yet decidedly different from that which they wear in winter, the first plumage of the young resem- bles the wedding garments of their parents without possessing anything of an intermediate character between the two periodical states. Again there are instances in which both adults and young differ according to sex, thus the male Blackbird can be distinguished from the female even as a nestling. All these cases have been very fully considered by Mr. Darwin in his latest work, and, quite irrespective of any arguments that may be founded upon them, the chapter in which they are treated deserves the closest attention of ornithologists.* Into the question of the various modes by which changes in the appearance of the plumage of birds are produced it is not proposed at present to enter. * 'The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex.' London : 1871, vol. ii. chap. xvi. pp. 1S7-223. woo DC HAT, FASSERES. 215 LANIID.E. Lanius auriculatus, p. L. S. .Miiller*. THE WOODCHAT. Lanius rutilus}. Whatever doubts might have existed formerly of the propriety of including the Woodchat among the Shrikes that visit England, there can be no question on this sub- ject now, and it is thought that the species may have even bred in this country. One of the earliest specimens recorded as British is that noticed by Gilbert White in his letter to Pennant, dated Selborne, August 30th, 1769, wherein the writer says that • Natuisystem, Suppleiii. p. 71 (1776). t Latham, Iiul. Orii. i. \>. 7<» (1700). 216 LANIIDE. a fine specimen had lately been sent to him, though he does not mention where it had been procured. From the fact that Ray applied to his description of this species the English name by which it is now generally known, it would seem as if he meant it to be regarded as British. In the British Museum there is a specimen of the Wood- chat, a young male, which formerly belonged to Leach's collection, and is labelled as having been killed in Kent. Since that time the occurrence in England of more than twenty examples has been noticed — chiefly in the southern and eastern counties. Several have been taken in the Scilly Isles, and one near Plymouth. Mr. More says (Zool. p. 6851) that he was informed it had bred twice at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, aiid, although the parents were carefully respected, one of the nests, with the eggs, as well as a young bird shot in September, 1856, are in the collection of Mr. Bond, who has kindly confirmed the statement. The same gentleman informed Mr. Gould that Mr. Braiken- ridge has a nest and eggs also received through the same source. The bird has been obtained near Brighton and a second time in Kent, while some four or five examples are said to have been procured in Suffolk, and about as many in Norfolk, though the assertion of Hunt that it had bred in the county last named very likely originated in error. Further inland it is stated to have been met with in Surrey, Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire. Mr. R. Gray remarks that it is included in Don's list of the birds of Forfarshire, but it seems not to have been noticed in Scotland by any other observer, and never in Ireland. Most of the examples taken in England have occurred during the seasons of migration, and the majority of them seem to have been in immature plumage. In size, in most of its habits, and in its mode of feeding, the Woodchat resembles the common Red-backed Shrike, and, like that species, is said to imitate the voice of several different birds. Hoy has well remarked (Mag. Nat. Hist, iv. p. 343) that it differs, however, from Lanliis coUurlo "in the choice of situation for its nest, placing it invariably on WOODCHAT. 217 trees, and preferring the oak. The nest is phiced in the fork of a projecting ])ranch, composed on the outside with sticks and wool, mixed with white moss from the hodies of the trees, and lined with fine grass and wool." In the Netherlands, to which country these observations refer, he continues, it is not a wild bird, often building close to houses and public roads, and arrives and departs about the same time as the Eed-backed Shrike. Writing of this species in Algeria, Mr. Salvin says (Ibis, 1859, p. 312) that it " breeds in great numbers on the hill-sides in the neigh- bourhood of Djendeli, making a nest composed almost entirely of one material, viz. a small grey flower, which the bird collects with the stalk, and entwines into its nest, employing the same for the lining. The whole structure is beautifully neat and compact." Other writers have noticed that the Woodchat, like the Lesser Grey Shrike, as already mentioned, makes choice of odoriferous plants in the con- struction of its nest. The eggs are four or five in number, and very variable ; some being white tinged with green or pale olive blotched irregularly with olive and lilac of diffe- rent shades, the markings sometimes difi'used and some- times forming regular spots often disposed in a zone, while other specimens are of a cream-colour with light red and suffused lilac spots. They measure from '97 to '86 by from •7 to -65 in. This Shrike does not visit the most northern parts of the European continent ; but is found in nearly all the countries lying between the Mediterranean and the Baltic. In Den- mark, however, it seems to occur only occasionally. In North Germany it is more abundant, but becomes less common, according to Dr. Borggreve, to the eastward. There appears to be no trace of it in Russia, except in the extreme south — the provinces bordering the Caspian and Black Seas. It inhabits both European and Asiatic Turkey, and was observed by De Filippi in Persia, reaching that country probably from Palestine or Arabia, in both of which it is found. On the eastern side of Africa its range extends, according to Dr. von Heugliu, southward as far as lat. 5° N., VOL. I. F F 218 lanftdt:. and on the western it is abundant in the Gamhia, and lias been received by Dr. Harthiub from the Gokl Coast. Except- ing perhaps within the tropics, where it may be stationary, it is a migratory species throughout all the countries in which it is found, appearing in southern and central Europe in spring and leaving in autumn. In the adult male, as represented in the lower figure, the beak is black, above the base of the upper mandible is a narrow streak of white ; the forehead, round the eyes, the ear-coverts, and a small patch depending therefrom, black ; irides hazel ; crown of the head and naj^e of the neck, rich chestnut-red ; the back black ; the scapulars white ; the rump grey ; upper tail-coverts white : the wings and wing- coverts black ; the primaries white at the base, forming a spot when the wing is closed ; the secondaries white at the end : the middle tail-feathers black ; the outer feather on each side wholly white ; the next on each side with the proximal half white, the distal half black, with a white tip ; the next on each side with a white tip only. The chin, throat, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, white ; legs, toes, and claws, black. The whole length of the male here described was seven inches and a half. The length from the carpal joint to the end of the wing-feathers, four inches : the first wing-feather less than half the length of the second ; the third, fourth, and fifth, longer than the second ; the third the longest of the whole. The female has the crown and nape dull red ; the scapu- lars dirty white ; the black of the back mixed Avith brown ; the wing-coverts edged with red ; the breast dirty Avliite ; the feathers of the flanks reddish tipped with brown. The young bird of the year, as represented in the upper figure, is reddish-brown above, with brown transverse lines ; wings and tail brownish-black ; underneath dirty white, with greyish transverse lines. The young male in the British collection of birds in the British Museum, which has been already mentioned as having been killed in Kent, and a specimen of a young WOODCHAT. 2 I y female formerly iu the Museum of the Zoological Society, which bird belonged to the collection of Mr. Vigors ; both these are apparently in the plumage of the second or third year, and may be thus described : Head, and nape of the neck, red ; back and wings hair-brown, without any trans- verse lines ; scapulars and edges of the tertials yellowish- white ; rump inclining to grey ; tail-feathers clove-brown ; all the under surface of the body dull white, tinged with red, but without bars ; beak, legs, and toes, dark brown. Examples of the Woodchat from Egypt in winter-plumage present very great variety, and have been the cause of many errors. Several of the smaller Shrikes, of which this species is one, are by some authorities removed from the genus Lan'ms, and for their accommodation a genus Enncoctonus has been erected — a proceeding which seems scarcely necessary. -^'^lr?^^ 220 MUSCICAPID/E. MVSCICAPID.E. "Hi ^M ^ ^^^ MusciCAPA GRisoLA, Liniiaeus*. THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. ^lusc icaixi (J r isola . MusciCAPA, Linnccusf. — Bill of moderate length, broad and depressed at the base ; compressed and slightly curved towards the point. Nostrils basal, lateral, and partly concealed by the frontal plumes. Gape beset with bristles. Feet small, the tarsus about the same length as the middle toe, which is much longer than the lateral toes. Wings long and pointed, the first primary very short, the second rather shorter than the third, fourth, and fifth, which are the longest in the wing. The Spotted Flycatcher is one of the latest, but, at the same time, one of the most reguhir of our summer-visitors. White of Selborne remarks, even more than once, in his miscellaneous observations published in Jesse's ' Gleanings,' that it arrives on the 20tli of May. Selby says, this bird seldom makes its appearance till the oak-leaf is partly ex- panded, but begins its nest almost immediately on its arrival. Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 328 (1866). t Tom. cit. p. 324. SPOTTED FJ,YCATCHER. 221 It frequents woods, orchards, gardens and lawns, and is not a little remarkable for the singularity of the places in which it sometimes makes its nest. There is also very good reason for believing that the same pair of birds return to occupy the same spot for several years in succession. The more usual places for this bird's nest are, the smaller twigs which grow from the bole of a large tree, the side of a faggot-stack, a hole in a wall, or on a beam in an out- building, whence arises one of its provincial names, that of Beam-bird ; it also frequently fixes its nest on a branch of a pear-tree, a vine, or a honeysuckle, when trained against a building. Of three cup-shaped nests now before me, one is formed on the outside of old dark-coloured moss, mixed with roots, the lining of grass stems, with only two or three white feathers ; the second has the bottom and outside of fresh green moss, lined with a few grass bents, long horse-hairs, and several mottled feathers ; the third is similar to the last on the outside, but lined with long horse-hairs, wool, and feathers. The labour and art bestowed by birds on the construction of their nests have long been the theme of admiration ; but the state of vegetation at the nest-building season of the year, and the care manifested by birds generally in selecting a place of security, render it difficult, excepting under very favourable circumstances, to obtain a sight of the nest- makers when at work. From what has been observed, how- ever, it is believed that the female is generally the nest- builder ; the male collects and brings to her the materials required : long stems of grass, or long horse-hairs, are interwoven by the bird fixing in one end, and then traversing the edge of the nest, laying in the remainder as she makes circle after circle. The eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher are four or five in number, measuring from '83 to '66 by from •6 to "51 in.; the ground-colour varying from french white to pale greenish-blue, or being occasionally of a cream-colour blotched and speckled with rusty, sometimes of a very deep hue, or less frequently closely mottled with minute streaks of pale rusty so as almost to hide the ground-colour. White says, the female while sitting on the eggs is fed by the male 222 MUsciCAPiD.t:. even as Late as nine o'clock at night. This hivd has no power of voice beyond a harsh call-note. A curious fact in reference to this bird was noticed by the late Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight, A Flycatcher built in his stove for several successive years. He observed that the bird quitted its eggs whenever the thermometer in the house was above 72" Fahr., and resumed her place upon the nest again when the thermometer sunk below. The young are hatched about the second week in June : when able to leave the nest, they follow the parent birds, who feed them until they can catch insects for themselves. When on the look-out for food, they generally take their stand on the top of a post, on the upper bar of a flight of rails, or the extreme end of a branch of a tree, whence they dart off on the approach of an insect, appear to catch it with ease by a short and rapid movement, returning frequently to the spot they had quitted, to keep watch as before. These birds feed exclusively on winged insects, though they have been accused of eating cherries and raspberries ; and in this belief the species in some parts of Kent goes by the name of the Cherry-sucker, but they visit fruit-trees for the sake of the flies which the ripening produce attracts, since on examination of the stomachs of Flycatchers killed under such circumstances no remains of fruit were found. White says that the Spotted Flycatcher only rears one brood in this country ; but many instances of this bird's producing a second hatch are known. Mr. Knox indeed has recorded such an event for three successive seasons. The Spotted Flycatcher is common during summer in all the counties of Great Britain, though less frequent in Scotland ; and Thompson says that it is also a regular summer-visitor to some parts of Ireland, and perhaps to suitable spots throughout the island ; but it would seem to be very local and sparingly distributed even in the counties in which it occurs, as Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Clare, Dublin, with those of the north-east part of Ulster. It is a common bird throughout the European continent, its range extending to lat. 69° N., at which elevation it is far from SPOTTRD FLYCATCHER. 223 scarce. Its eastern limits cannot at present be determined, but it is found in Russia, being exceedingly numerous in the south, and De Filippi met with it in Persia. Canon Tris- tram speaks of it as arriving in Palestine on the 23rd of April and the two following days in great numbers, and remaining to breed there. It also occurs in Arabia, and in Africa southward to the confines of the Cape Colony ; but it does not seem to have been observed in any of the Atlantic Islands. The beak is dark brown ; the irides hazel ; the head and the whole of the upper surface of the body and wing-coverts hair-brown, the wing- and tail-quills being a little darker, with a few dark brown spots on the top of the head ; the tertials with a narrow margin of light brown ; the lower parts dull white, with a patch of light brown across the upper part of the breast, and a few dark brown streaks or spots upon that and the chin, with a clear white space between ; the sides and flanks tinged with yellowish-brown ; legs, toes, and claws, black. Males and females are alike in plumage. The whole length of the bird is five inches and five- eighths. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather, three inches and three -eighths. The young, when ready to leave the nest, are truly Spotted Flycatchers, each brown feather having a buff"- coloured tip, the ends of the great wing-coverts forming a pale wood-brown bar across the wing ; lower surface white. After their first moult, they may be distinguished from older birds by the broader buff-coloured outer margins of the tertials. The vignette represents the breast bone of this bird. 224 PASSERES. MUSCICAPID.E. MVSCICAPTD.V:. MusciCAPA PARVA, Beclistein*. THE RED-BKEASTED FLYCATCHER. Among the many birds of central or eastern Europe whose occasional appearance in the British Islands has been lately detected by the daily-increasing number of ornithological observers, few have greater right to be included in this work than the little Flycatcher above figured — three examples, one of which was accompanied by a mate, having been procured. The announcement of the occurrence in England of this species was simultaneously made by Mr. George Gray in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for March, 1863 (3rd ser. xi. p. 228), and by Mr. Rodd in the ' Zoologist' (p. 8444) for the same month. The bird, after having been seen for some days, was shot on the 24th of January in that year by Mr. Copeland, of Carwythenack * Gemeinniitzige Naturgeschichte Deutscb lands, iv. p. 505 (1795). RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER. 225 House, iu the parish of Constantine, near Falmouth ; and this gentleman, writing a few days later to Mr. Rodd, says : — " We first observed it on a dead holly tree ; this tree and the ground around the house were its favourite resort. It was i3articularly active, skimming the grass to within about a foot, then, perching itself, darted occasionally with a toss, resting either on a shrub or the wire fencing. There is another in the neighbourhood, for which a vigilant watch will be kept. I saw it a few days back in a plantation which is four hundred yards from my house." The specimen killed, which proved to be a female, was sent in the flesh to the British Museum, where its remains still are, the head having been unfortunately destroyed by mice, but quite sufficient was left to admit of the determination of the species by authorities so high as Mr. George Gray and Mr. Gould. The second example observed by Mr. Copelaud was not obtained ; but in the October following another bird of this species was killed, in company with some young Pied Flycatchers, upon one of the isles of Scilly, by Mr. Au- gustus Pechell and a nej)hew of Mr. Eodd's. This was a young male, as recorded by the gentleman last named (Zool. p. 8841 and Ibis, 1864, p. 131), and is now in his collection. On the 5th of November, 1865, as announced by Mr. Rodd (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd ser. xvi. p. 447, and Zool. s.s. p. 31), a bird of this species again appeared in Scilly, this time on Tresco Island, and, after having been carefully watched by Mr. Pechell and Mr. John Jenkinson, it was lulled, but so much injured by shot that its sex could not be determined. The geographical distribution of this species when com- pared with that of others is somewhat exceptional. Though not an uncommon summer-visitor to some parts of the continent, the general line of its migration does not appear to be in the usual north and south direction, but strongly inclined from north-west to south-east ; and the birds which breed in the central and eastern countries of Europe, instead of retiring, as do most of our summer-migrants, across the Mediterranean to Africa, would seem to turn their flight VOL. I. G G 226 MUSCICAPID^. towards India. In Europe it has occurred as a straggler ofif the coast of Sweden, an examj)le having been taken in the Baltic near Landsort, and it has been once killed, many years ago, near Copenhagen. MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy- Lapommeraye mention two specimens killed in the south of France, and, on Dr. Cara's authority, its occurrence in Sardinia, which last fact is denied by Dr. Salvadori in his new ' Fauna d'ltalia.' From him however we learn that it appears, though very rarely, in Italy. Mr. Howard Saunders states that one example has been killed and another observed in Spain. Loche gives it as of occasional occurrence in Algeria ; but it is not known to have been met with elsewhere on the African continent. The ordinary limit of the Red-breasted Flycatcher's north- western range is found in the island of Riigen and the coasts of Mecklenburg and Pomerania ; thence towards the south- east it becomes more plentiful, though generally a local species. In this direction it inhabits in summer Thuriugia, Franconia, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and Turkey, while it occasionally strays to Switzerland. Its limits to the north- east cannot so well be traced ; but it seems to occur near St. Petersburg and across Russia to the Caucasus, occupying, one may presume, all the countries lying between this line and that before indicated. Marquess Doria found it not uncommon in spring near Teheran, and this observation points out the route it takes from its winter-quarters in Upper and Western India. On the opposite side of the Indian peninsula it is said to be replaced by a nearly allied species, generally referred to that named by Gmelin Musci- capa leucura, and this bird, migrating probably in a north- easterly direction, seems to have been mistaken for M. jmrva by some of the Russian naturalists, who have thought they had met with the latter in Eastern Asia even so far as Kamtchatka. Be that as it may, there is no doubt of the true ill. parva being, as has been said, a winter-visitant to North-western India. The Red-breasted Flycatcher was originally discovered by Bechstein in Thuringia, but it is worthy of note that modern RED-BREASTED FLVCATCHER. 227 German ornithologists state that it has not been observed for some years past in the locahty where he first found it. It arrives, say those who have observed its habits in Central Europe, in May and departs in August, chiefly frequenting, either singly or in small bands, the beech forests of the more mountainous districts and their outskirts, but some- times also the smaller woods of the more level country. It is described as a restless little bird, keeping always among the tree-tops, perching on a dead twig and flitting through the leafy shade in the pursuit of insects, so that, to any one not well acquainted with it, it might pass for one of the Willow- Wrens, to the call-notes of some of which its own has a resemblance, though its song is said to be somewhat like that of the Pied Flycatcher. Towards the end of May, having paired, it begins to build. The nest is cup-shaped and rather deep, small and neat, composed of moss and wool, with a lining of hairs, and is placed either where a rotten branch in falling off has left a hole, or between the trunk of a tree and an obliquely ascending bough. The eggs are from five to seven in number, french white, closely mottled with fine streaks of pale rusty, sometimes so as almost to hide the ground colour, and measure from "65 to •61 by from '51 to '47 in. The young are hatched in June and fed by their parents with small beetles, which are not only caught in the air but sought for on the ground. Von Nordmann in his ' Observations sur la Faune Pon- tique' (p. 198) remarks that this species breeds commonly in the mountain region of Abasia, very probably in that of Bessarabia and perhaps even near the steppes. The young arrive in the botanic garden at Odessa towards the end of July, and remain there until the end of October. At that time they do not keep, like the adults as described in Germany, to the tree-tops, but frequent the middle branches and often come to the ground for food. Each bird has its own station, and when two meet one is furiously pursued by the other with piercing cries which he likens to the clicking noise of small castanets. In the spring the adults in full plumage stop only a short time in the gardens. The liveliness of their 228 MUSCICAPID.E. motions and the white mark (m their tail remind one, he says, of the smaller species of Saxicola. The male of this Flycatcher in breeding plumage has much of the appearance of our familiar Redbreast. The top of the head is smoky-grey ; the lores whitish ; cheeks, ear- coverts and sides of the neck light bluish-grey ; orbital feathers white ; scapulars and back mouse-colour, passing into blackish-grey on the rump, the upper tail-coverts being edged with whitish. Wing-coverts and primaries dark hair- brown, the outer edge of the latter lighter ; the first quill extremely short, the second considerably shorter than the third, which is slightly longer than the fifth but shorter than the fourth — the longest in the wing ; the secondaries like the primaries but with the light edge broader and the tip whitish. Tail of ten feathers, blackish-brown — the middle pair entirely so, but the rest with more or less of a white l)asal or median patch extending across one or both webs, increasing in size from the outer pair, which have it only on the inner web, to the third pair, and then decreasing to the pair next the middle, which have it only on the outer web. Chin, throat and upper part of the breast light reddish- orange, belly white tinged on the sides and flanks with buff ; lower tail-coverts like the flanks but paler ; inside of the wings pale yellowisli-buft\ The bill is said to be horn- colour, the upper mandible darkest, irides hazel, legs, toes and claws dark brown. A male in winter resembles the former, but the top of the head is like the back, and there is no trace of bluish-grey on its sides ; the throat is dull buff" with dusky transverse bars, and the whole lower surface more suffused with dull buif. The old female has a general likeness to the male in winter ; but the whole upper surface inclines to hair-brown, the tips of the wing-coverts and tertials are buff", the lower surface except a band of light brown across the breast is paler. The young in autumn resemble the female ; l)ut the colours are everywhere lighter, and there is hardly any trace of buff" beneath. The nestlings are said to have a spotted plumage, which they lose at a very early age. PIED FLYCATCHRir 229 PASSE RES. M USCICA PID.E. MUSCICAPA ATRICAPILLA, Linnffius *. THE PIED FLYCATCHER. Muscicajxi