necessity of employing numerous subdivisions, not only in this, but also in its allied genus Strix. These, however, we cannot agree to admit as genera, preferring to call them subgenera, and giving them a name, but when having occasion to mention a species belonging to any of them, to employ the name of the great genus.

The desire of avoiding too great a multiplication of groups, has caused some, even of the first ornithologists of our time, to employ sections that are not natural, and with false or inapplicable characters, and, as if they would compel nature to conform to their preconceived and narrow views, after having assigned decided limits to their groups, to force into them species not only widely different, but that do not even possess the artificial character proposed. We shall not imitate this irrational example. It shall rather be our object to compose natural groups, and, in obedience to this principle, whenever we meet with a group, or even a single species, clearly insulated, it shall at least be pointed out, not so much regarding the number of our subgenera, as the characters that unite the species of which they are respectively composed.

It is objected to the numerous subdivisions that have been proposed in our day, that they pass into and blend insensibly with each other. This is no doubt true; but is it not the same with regard to natural groups of every denomination? It is this fact which has induced us to consider them as subgenera, and not as distinct genera. We are told, however, by the advocates for numerous genera, that, in giving a name, we adopt a genus, but we do not see that this necessarily follows.

There are, we confess, other grounds on which we might be attacked with more advantage. We may, perhaps, be charged with inconsistency in refusing to admit, as the foundation of generic groups in the Rapaces, characters which are allowed, not only by ourselves, but by some of those who are most strenuously opposed to the multiplication of genera, to have quite sufficient importance for such distinction in other families. With what propriety, it might be asked, can

we admit Hydrobates (Fuligula, Nob.) as distinct from Anas, and the various genera that have been dismembered from Lanius, at the same time that we reject, as genera, the different groups of hawks? To this we can only reply, that we are ourselves entirely convinced, that all the subgenera adopted in our synopsis among the Falcones of North America, are quite as distinct from each other as Coccyzus and Cuculus, or Corvus and Garrulus. The latter genus we have admitted after Temminck, who is opposed to new genera among the hawks, though Astur and Elanus certainly require to be separated no less than the two genera that Temminck himself has established in the old genus Vultur.

No living naturalist (with the exception of those who, through a sort of pseudo-religious feeling, will only admit as genera groups indicated as such by Linné) has adhered longer than ourselves to large genera, at the same time that we could not deny the existence of subordinate natural groups. We will not pretend to deny that these are of equal rank with some recognized as genera in other families, and we can only say, that we consider it doubtful, in the present unsettled state of the science, what this rank ought to be. We therefore, in the instances above quoted, consider it of little importance whether these groups be considered as genera or subgenera.

But what is certainly of great importance is, to preserve uniformity in all such cases; to make coordinate divisions, and give corresponding titles to groups of equal value. This uniformity, however desirable, cannot, in the actual state of ornithology, be easily attained; and we have decided, after much hesitation, to continue to employ subgenera. In doing this, we are moreover influenced by the great difficulty that is met with, in some cases, in determining the proper place of a species partaking of the characters of several groups, yet not in the least deserving to be isolated; such as Falco borealis, which is almost as much an Astur as a Buteo, and has been placed by authors, according to their different views, in both these groups.

An extensive reform is evidently needed in the department of classification that relates to genera, and we propose, with this view, to undertake at some future period a general work, when, erecting our system on a more philosophical basis, though we may restrict some, and enlarge other genera, we shall, in the instances to which we have alluded, as well as in a multitude of others, at least place them all on an equal footing.

Among the several groups into which the falcon tribe is divided, we come to one composed of about sixty species, well marked, and, if kept within its proper bounds, very natural, to which authors have variously applied the name of Accipiter, Sparvius, and Astur, which last we have adopted.

Found in all parts of the globe, and destroying every where great numbers of birds, and small quadrupeds, the hawks (by which English name we propose to distinguish this group more particularly) closely resemble each other in colour and changes of plumage, especially the North American and European species. They are eminently distinguished from all other falcons by their short wings, not reaching by a considerable length to the tip of their tail, which is even, or but very slightly rounded; and by their first quill feather or primary, which is very short, while the fourth is constantly the longest. Their bill, suddenly curved from the base, is very strong and sharp; their head is narrowed before, with the eyes placed high, large, and fiery. Their feet are very long, and the toes especially, the middle one of which is much the longest, and all are armed with very strong sharp talons, well seconding the sanguinary nature of these fierce creatures; their outer toe is connected at base by a membrane to the middle one. The female is always one-third larger than the male, and the plumage of both is, in most species, dark above and white beneath; in the adult, barred with reddish or dusky. In the young bird the colour is lighter, the feathers skirted with ferruginous, and the white of the under parts streaked longitudinally with dusky, instead of being barred. The tail is uniform in colour with

the back, with almost always a few broad bands of black, and sometimes of white, and a whitish tip.

The hawks (Astures) combine cunning with agility and strength. Sudden and impetuous in their movements, they make great havoc, especially among birds that keep in flocks, as pigeons, blackbirds, &c. and are the terror of the poultry yard. Fearless and sanguinary, they never feed, even when pressed by hunger, except on red and warm-blooded animals, whose quivering limbs they tear with savage delight. Birds they pluck very carefully, and quarter, before eating them, but swallow small quadrupeds entire, afterwards ejecting their skins rolled up into a ball. They always pursue and seize their prey upon the wing, not falling upon it from aloft, but, rapidly skimming the earth, make their insidious approaches sidewise, and, singling out their victim, dart upon it with fatal velocity. They never soar, like the kites and eagles, to the upper regions of the atmosphere; and it is only during the nuptial season that they are observed sailing in wide circles in the air. Their favourite haunts, during summer, are forests, building their nests on trees; in winter they spread over the plains. Though generally observed alone, the male and his companion are seldom far apart. During the youth of their progeny, the parents keep them company, in order to teach them to hunt their prey, and at such times they are observed in families.

This group may be farther subdivided into two sections, to one of which the name of Astur has more strictly been assigned, while the other has been distinguished by those of Sparvius and Accipiter. The former, of which the goshawk of Europe and North America (black-capped hawk of Wilson) is the type, is characterized by its wings being somewhat longer, body more robust, and shorter, and much thicker tarsi. This is the only species that inhabits the United States and Europe.

The second section, to which the present new species belongs, possessing all its characters in a pre-eminent degree, equally with the hawk described by Wilson in

ts adult state as Falco Pennsylvanicus, and in its youth is Falco velox, was established on the sparrow hawk of Europe, Falco nisus, but the American species just mentioned are no less typical. The hawks of this section are more elegantly shaped, being much more slender; their wings are still shorter than in the other section, reaching little beyond the origin of the tail, and their tarsi slender and elongated, with a smooth and almost continuous covering.

Notwithstanding their smaller size and diminished strength, their superior courage and audacity, and the quickness of their movements, enable them to turn the flight of the largest birds, and even sometimes, when in captivity together, to overcome them. We have kept a sparrow hawk, (Falco nisus,) which, in the space of twenty-four hours that he was left unobserved, killed three falcons which were confined with him.

The inextricable confusion reigning throughout the works of authors who have not attended to the characters of the different groups of this genus, renders it next to impossible to decide, with any degree of certainty, whether our Falco Cooperii has or has not been recorded. Though agreeing imperfectly with many, we have not been able, notwithstanding our most sedulous endeavours, to identify it with any. It is evidently a young bird, and we should not be surprised at its proving, when adult, a known species, perhaps one of the numerous species figured of late, and possibly Le Grand Epervier de Cayenne of Daudin, Sparvius major, Vieillot, stated to be one-third larger than the European sparrow hawk. At all events, however, it is an acquisition to the ornithology of these States; and we have ventured to consider it as a new species, and to impose on it the name of a scientific friend, William Cooper of New York, to whose sound judgment, and liberality in communicating useful advice, the naturalists of this country will unite with us in bearing testimony, and to whom only the author, on the eve of his departure for Europe, would have been