Birds of Prey (Smith novel) is at war with England. Sir Francis Courteney and his son Hal attack ships of the Dutch East India Company off the coast of Africa. They are betrayed and Sir Francis is executed. Hal winds up working for Prester John. Film and TV rights to the book were bought by Corona Pictures but as of 2013 no adaptation has been filmed. Birds of Prey (Smith novel) Birds of Prey is a 1997 novel by Wilbur Smith set in the late 17th century. The novel was the first in the third sequence of the Courtney series of novels, and as of
Bird of prey "Accipitres", subdividing this into four genera: "Vultur" (vultures), "Falco" (eagles, hawks, falcons, etc.), "Strix" (owls), and "Lanius" (shrikes). This approach was followed by subsequent authors such as Gmelin, Latham, and Turnton. Louis Pierre Veillot used additional ranks: order, tribe, family, genus, species. Birds of prey (order Accipitres) were divided into diurnal and nocturnal tribes; the owls remained monogeneric (family Ægolii, genus "Strix"), whilst the diurnal raptors were divided into three families: Vulturini, Gypaëti, and Accipitrini. Thus Veillot's families were similar to the Linnaean genera, with the difference that shrikes were no longer included amongst the birds of prey. In addition