of certain Birds of Cuba. 15 
Hence, so far as we are authorized by these data, we learn, 
that the variation in the number of vertebra is least in the 
Raptores and greatest in the Rasores: yet, singular as it may 
appear, there is evidently some species of relation existing 
between these two orders; which relation made Brisson, in his 
General Arrangement, and Hermann in his Tabula Affinitatum, 
place them next each other in affinity. The Phasianide and 
Vulturide have been observed to agree in various respects by 
Buffon, Humboldt, and other naturalists* ; and whether we 
regard the general agreement of the respective orders to which 
they belong, in the naked cheeks, cera, or form of beak, or of 
some species in the number of vertebre, there can be little 
doubt of the reality of some connexion between them. 
Again, on looking at the above table, we find that the num- 
ber of vertebre is greatest in the Ostrich and Swan, of all birds ; 
in the former the number of articulations being 55, in the 
* See Humb. Obs. Zool. on Vultur gryphus, Pl. V I I.—]1t is a story current in the 
Island of Cuba, that when the Havana was taken by Lord Albemarle in 1762, the 
English soldiers seeing the Gallinaza Aura Vieill. feeding, as it is often accustomed to 
do, among the domestic fowls in a farm-yard, took them for Black Turkeys; and were 
only undeceived by the disgustingly putrid odour which these voraciou: birds emit on 
being | handled, The name under which the bird is known to all our English colonists, 
trkey- and M. Vieillot’s generic n name Gallinaza, adopted from the 
Spanish as mentioned by Acosta, have both reference to the relation which this Vulture 
undoubtedly bears to the Rasores. See also L'Histoire du Nouveau Monde, 1640, 
p.145. Hermann says, p.167 :—“ Gallinarum cum Accipitribus affinitatem aliquam 
illud indicare poterit, quod animalis cibi cupidinem qui in cohortatibus nostris Gallinis 
conspicitur, domestica forte vite debitum urgeat Buffonius, aut quod incurvum accipi- 
trino subsimile rostrum et magna statura Tetraonis Urogalli, vel Meleagridis Gallo- 
pavonis forma colorque et denudatum caput quibus comparare illi Vulturem Auram 
itineratores solent rapacium avium ideam aliquam revocare possit." Aristotle, who 
seems also to be aware of this relation between the two orders, distinguishes the Ra- 
sores as modvyova, and the Raptores as odvyoyova. Pliny says, * Alterum Tetraonum 
genus Vulturum magnitudinem excedit, quorum et colorem reddit :" Rs pro- 
bably, to the Capercailzie. 
Tatter 
