Diurnal Birds-of-Prey, which contains, among many others, the species usually known as the Common Buzzard, Buteo vulgaris, of Leach, though the English epithet is nowadays hardly applicable. The name Buzzard, however, belongs quite as rightfully to the birds called in books "HARRIERS," and by it one of them, the Moor-Buzzard, Circus æruginosus,

is still known in such places as it inhabits. "Puttock" is also another name used in some parts of the country, but perhaps is rather a synonym of the KITE, Milvus ictinus. Though ornithological writers are almost unanimous in distinguishing the Buzzards as a group from the EAGLES, the grounds usually assigned for their separation are but slight, and the diagnostic character that can be best trusted is probably that in the former, as the figure shews, the bill is decurved from the base, while in the latter it is for about a third of its length straight. The head, too, in the Buzzards is short and round, while in the Eagles it is elongated. In a general way Buzzards are smaller than Eagles, though there are several exceptions to this statement, and have their plumage more mottled. Furthermore, most if not all of the Buzzards, about which anything of the kind is with certainty known, assume their adult dress at the first moult, while the Eagles take a longer time to reach maturity. The Buzzards are fine-looking birds, but are slow and heavy of flight, so that in the old days of falconry they were regarded with infinite scorn, and hence in common English to call a man a "buzzard" is to denounce him as stupid. Their food consists of small mammals, young birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects-particularly beetles-and thus they never could have been very injurious to the game-preserver, though they have fallen under his ban, if indeed they were not really his friends; but at the present day they are so scarce that in this country their effect, whatever it may be, is inappreciable. Buzzards are found over the whole world with the exception of the Australian Region, and have been split into many genera by systematists. In the British Islands we have two species, one (the B. vulgaris already mentioned) resident, and now almost confined to a few of the wilder districts; the other the Rough-legged Buzzard, Archibuteo lagopus, an irregular winter-visitant, sometimes arriving in large bands from the north of Europe, and readily distinguishable from the former by being feathered down to the toes. The HONEY-BUZZARD, Pernis apivorus, a summer-visitor from the south, and breeding, or attempting to

breed, yearly in the New Forest, does not come into the subfamily Buteoninæ, but is probably the type of a distinct group, Pernina, of which there are other examples in Africa and Asia. The so-called "Turkey-Buzzard" is one of the American VULTURES.

C

CÆCA, a pair of blindsacs or lateral dilatations of the gut, marking the beginning of the rectum. When the cæca are large the rectum is shut off from the ileum or small intestine by a valvular sphincter, which allows the fæcal matter to ascend from the rectum into the cæca, but prevents it from passing back into the ileum. The cæca vary extremely in size in the different groups of Birds; they attain their greatest size in those that are herbivorous, are small or hardly functional in most that live on animal food, and are altogether absent in fruit- and grain-eaters. There are, however, so many exceptions to this broad generalisation, that an enumeration. is advisable, especially since a certain taxonomic value cannot be denied to these organs.

It is highly probable that originally all Birds possessed cæca, and that, according to the diet, these were either further developed or reduced in size or even lost ultimately. Hence the mere presence of cæca in a bird is of less taxonomic value than their state of development; they are either functional, or without function; their absence is only the last step of their degeneration.

1. The cæca are large and of great functional importance in Struthio, Rhea, Apteryx, Crypturi, Gallinæ, Pteroclidæ, Grallæ, and Anseres, ie. in birds which are chiefly herbivorous; also in many worm-eating Limicolæ, for instance in the Avoset, Lapwing, Ringed Plover, Edicnemus, Thinocorys, Attagis, and the Corncrake; lastly in the Owls, Nightjars, Rollers, Bee-eaters, and Cuckoos, i.e. birds which, with the exception of the first group, are strictly insectivorous.

2. The cæca are distinctly functional, but comparatively short, in Casuarius, Dromæus, Grus, Turnix, many Anatidae (vegetableeaters with a great predilection for animal food), Limicolæ and Rallidæ, like the Golden Plover, Numenius, Totanus, Gallinago, Chionis, Porphyrio, Porzana; the piscivorous Spheniscidæ, Pelicanus, Podicipes, Uria, Colymbus; Merops, and Phoenicopterus.

3. The cæca are quite degenerated and functionless, being either (a) reduced to small wartlike or vermiform appendages, as in some Spheniscidæ, Herodii, Pelargi, Steganopodes, Laridæ, Strep

1 The name Pernis was given in 1817 by Cuvier (Règne Anim. i. p. 322), who said it was used by Aristotle; but the latter has only πтéρvus (Hist. Anim. ix. 36).

silas, Limosa, Scolopax, Parra, Rhinochetus, many Columbæ, Accipitres, and Passeres; or (b) they are entirely absent, as in many Columbæ, Psittaci, Musophaga, Corythaix, Pici, Alcedinidæ, Bucerotidæ, Upupidæ, Colius, Cypselidæ, and Trochilidæ.

4. Sometimes one cæcum remains in a rudimentary condition and the other one has disappeared; this is the rule in almost all Herodii and in Procellaria, but occasionally met with in Steganopodes, Podicipes, Strepsilas, and in Atrichia.

The greatest development of the cæca occurs in Struthio, Rhea, Tinamus, and Meleagris, their aggregate volume equalling or even surpassing that of the rest of the intestinal canal, the cæca in these cases, especially in Ratitæ, shewing numerous transverse constrictions and sacculations, which increase the absorbing surface.

A certain correlation exists between the cæca and the length and width of the rectum.

The examples enumerated above seem to shew that cæca are not required for the digestion of meat, fruit, and grain. Fish-eating Ducks have considerably shorter cæca than their strictly vegetarian relations; the same remark applies to those Waders which live upon mollusks and other soft-bodied invertebrates. On the other hand, the well-developed cæca of Coracias, Caprimulgus, Merops, Cuculus, and those of the likewise insectivorous Todies and Bee-eaters, make it not improbable that in the cæca not only cellulosis (as in Mammalia) but also chitine is digested.

Lastly, the presence or absence of the cæca being thus explained by the food, a clew will occasionally be afforded to the systematic position of birds in which they appear against reasonable expectation. It is clear that change of diet may be accomplished in a much shorter time than it takes to modify the various digestive organs. For instance, the exclusive meat-diet of the Birds-of-Prey has reduced their cæca to mere rudiments, and it is more than improbable that the insectivorous habits of many of the smaller Falconidae will ever redevelop these organs, especially since these birds throw out the indigestible parts in pellets. Owls now cannot be distinguished from Diurnal Birds-of-Prey by their diet; they possess large cæca, and cannot therefore be derived from the Accipitres, which have lost them, nor is it probable that Owls and Accipitres came from one common stock and are collateral branches, because in this case both would be of equal age, and we should have to assume that the meatdiet had in one branch suppressed and in the other branch preserved or even increased the cæca. We can only conclude that the Owls are descendants of a stock of birds which, like the Nightjars, lived on chitinous insects (Beetles, Moths), and that they, like Podargus, as shown by its predilection for mice, comparatively recently took to the flesh of vertebrates.

As might be expected, the members of any large and much

diversified group of birds, like Waders, Pigeons, Spheniscidæ, and others, have cæca in various stages of development, but it would be a hopeless attempt to explain this diversity in particular instances by reference to the preponderance of animal over vegetable diet, of which in wild birds we know so very little.

CALANDER ("Chalaundre" and "Chelaundre," Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose), Fr. Calandre, and Ital. Calandra, both from the Latin caliendrum (a head-dress of false hair), a species of LARK, the Alauda calandra of Linnæus, and the Melanocorypha calandra of later writers, described by Willughby after Olina, and figured by Edwards (Gleanings, pl. 268) as coming from Carolina, a curious mistake, for the bird is not American, but a well-known inhabitant of Europe, though no proof of its occurrence in Britain has been given. It may easily be recognized by its large size, thick bill, and interrupted black collar.

CALAO, the name under which some old writers wrote of the HORNBILLS; generally adopted for them in French, and found also in scientific nomenclature.

CALAW or CALLOO-generally followed by "Duck"-a Shetland name of the Long-tailed DUCK.

CALICO-BIRD, one of the many names given to the TURNSTONE on the east coast of North America (Trumbull, Names and Portr. of B. p. 186).

CAMPEPHAGA (Caterpillar-eater), the scientific name of a genus of birds bestowed by Vieillot, and anglified by Gould for

certain Australian forms, which, if not belonging to the Laniida (SHRIKE), are apparently intermediate between that Family and the Corvida (CROW). By some writers they are

regarded as a separate group, Campephagida, to which are attached several other forms that inhabit not only Australia, but the Indian and Ethiopian Regions. This view will very likely prove correct; but it would be at present premature to trace the limits of the group, of which Ceblepyris may be an extreme example. One of their characteristics is the stiffened shaft of the rump-feathers, so as to feel spinous to the touch (cf. also OXYNOTUS).

CANARY-BIRD, a FINCH so-called from the islands whence it was apparently first brought, the Fringilla canaria of Linnæus, and

Serinus canarius of modern writers, which has long been the commonest of cage-birds throughout the world. It abounds not only in the islands whence it has its name, but in the neighbouring groups of the Madeiras and Azores. It seems to have been imported into Europe very early in the sixteenth century. Turner in 1544 speaks of the birds "quas Anglia aues canarias uocat"; a statement confirmed by the poet Gascoigne, who died in 1577, and speaks (Complaint of Philomene, L. 33) of "Canara byrds." Gesner had not seen one in 1555, but he gave an account of it (Ornithol. p. 234), communicated to him by Raphael Seiler of Augsburg, under the name of Suckeruögele. The wild stock is of an olive-green, mottled with dark brown, above, and greenish-yellow beneath. All the bright-hued examples we now see in captivity have been induced by carefully breeding from any chance varieties that have shewn themselves; and not only the colour, but the build and stature of the bird have in this manner been greatly modified. The change must have begun early, for Hernandez, who died in 1587, described the bird (Hist. Anim. Nov. Hisp. cap. xxviii. p. 20) as being wholly yellow (tota lutea) except the end of its wings. Of late the ingenuity of "the fancy," which might seem to have exhausted itself in the production of topknots, feathered feet, and so forth, has brought about a still further change from the original type. It has been found that by a particular treatment, in which the mixing of large quantities of cayenne-pepper with the food plays an important part, the ordinary "canary yellow" may be intensified so as to verge upon a more or less brilliant flame colour. Birds which have successfully undergone this forcing process, and are hence called "hot canaries," command a very high price, for a large proportion die under the discipline, though it is said that they soon become exceedingly fond of the exciting condiment. But it is impossible here to treat of this species in its domesticated state. A small library' of books has been written on the subject.2

1

Very nearly resembling the Canary-bird, but smaller in size, is the SERIN, Serinus hortulanus, a species which not long since was very local in Europe, and chiefly known to inhabit the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It has of late years pushed its way towards the north, and has even been several times taken in England (Yarrell's Brit. Birds, ed. 4, ii. pp. 111-116). A closely allied species, S. canonicus, is peculiar to Palestine.

In many different parts of the world the word "Canary" is

1 This book was not published till 1631, and of course there is a possibility of the passage being an interpolation, but I know no reason to suspect it.

2 Those most to be commended are perhaps The Canary Book by Robert L. Wallace, Canaries and Cage Birds by W. A. Blackston, and of course Darwin's Animals and Plants under Domestication (i. p. 295). An excellent monograph of the wild bird is that by Dr. Carl Bolle (Journ. für Orn. 1858, pp. 125-151).