[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS about the size of the Goshawk, but of a thicker body. The head is covered with cinereous feathers, mixed with black; the throat and part of the breast are spotted with ash-colour; and the body is of a dark reddish brown, marked with small white lines.
The Red Indian Falcon is about the bigness of the Mountain Falcon. The bill is cinereous, the cere yellow; the back and wings of a reddish hue; the breast and belly of a mixture of ash colour and brown; and an oblong reddish spot proceeds from the interior corner of each eye. It is a handsome bird, and he shares with all the kind, that keenness of sight, which is so useful to them, in singling their devoted prey from the regions of the air, down to the darkest thickets of the woods. It is worthy of observation, that several naturalists have puzzled themselves to find the individuals, or the kind of falcons, to which might belong several names, as the Gentle Falcon, and the Haggard, mentioned in Belon and others; but the fact is, that these denominations belong to the same bird, viz. the Common Falcon, but in different periods of his life.
