. A text-book of agricultural zoology. Zoology, Economic. FALCONIFOEMES. 357 The Faleonidm include all our Diumal Birds of Prey—the Hawks, Falcons, Buzzards, Kites, Harriers, and Eagles. They have a hooked beak furnished with a sharp projection on each side; the cere is always devoid of feathers, with the rounded nostrils placed laterally upon it. The feet are raptorial—that is, are armed with long, sharp, curved talons (fig. 185). Unlike the Vultures, they have fourteen cervical verte- brae. All the Accipitres have the oil-gland tuft- ed. They eject the un- digested parts of the food from ten
. A text-book of agricultural zoology. Zoology, Economic. FALCONIFOEMES. 357 The Faleonidm include all our Diumal Birds of Prey—the Hawks, Falcons, Buzzards, Kites, Harriers, and Eagles. They have a hooked beak furnished with a sharp projection on each side; the cere is always devoid of feathers, with the rounded nostrils placed laterally upon it. The feet are raptorial—that is, are armed with long, sharp, curved talons (fig. 185). Unlike the Vultures, they have fourteen cervical verte- brae. All the Accipitres have the oil-gland tuft- ed. They eject the un- digested parts of the food from ten to twenty hours after ingestion as small rounded pellets. Vision is extremely Fia. 185.—foot of Raptorial Bird. keen, and most are en- dowed with very strong powers of flight. The female is always larger than the male. Many of these Eaptores are decidedly beneficial, whilst others are just as harmful; the indiscriminate slaughter of them has been attended with disastrous results, by the undue increase of many of their kinds of prey. The most important economic species are the following :— Belonging to the genus Falco, which have short bills curved from the base, with a strong, projecting, cutting tooth on the edge of each upper mandible; with long pointed wings, and long, curved, sharp claws, are first— The Kestrel or Wind-hover (Falco tinnuncfulue).—This is one of our most abundant and useful birds of prey. It is generally present over Great Britain, occurring in greater numbers in winter than summer, due to immigrants from the Continent. The adult male kestrel has a bluish-grey head, neck, and tail; the tail has a broad black band towards the end, and is tipped with white; the back is pale reddish-brown towards the head, greyish-blue near the tail, with small dark spots ia the male; the. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1899
