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 travelled further, the familiar names were applied to new birds with similar characteristics. Names that have generalised this way include: kite ("Milvus milvus"), sparrow-hawk or sparhawk ("Accipiter nisus"), goshawk ("Accipiter gentilis"), kestrel ("Falco tinninculus"), hobby ("Falco subbuteo"), harrier (simplified from "hen-harrier", "Circus cyaneus"), buzzard ("Buteo buteo"). Some names have not generalised, and refer to single species (or groups of closely related (sub)species): merlin ("Falco columbarius"), osprey ("Pandion haliaetus"). The taxonomy of Carl Linnaeus grouped birds (class Aves) into orders, genera, and species, with no formal ranks between genus and order. He placed all birds of prey into a single order,