164 



AVES. 



(fig. 72, a) is semicircular and very wide, the better to resist the violent pressure of the humerus 

 incidental to a rapid flight. [The young undergo no change of feather until their second 



autumu ; and they renew their plumage slowly, and in no 

 instance more than once in the year ; its seasonal change 

 being confined to a slight wearing off, rather than a natural 

 shedding, of the margins of the feathers : in several species, 

 however, the colour indicative of maturity is partially ac- 

 quired, previously to moulting, by a change of hue in the first 

 or nestling plumage. The eggs of Accipitrine Birds are 

 nearly spherical ; and those of the present division are gene- 

 rally more or less spotted or blotched with rusty-brown. 

 The young are at first densely clad in short soft down.] 



Linnaeus made only two genera, which are two natural 

 divisions, — the Vultures and the Falcons. 



The Vultures {Vultur, Lin.) — 



Have the eyes even with the head ; the tarsi reticulated, or, in 

 other words, covered with small scales ; the beak lengthened, 

 curved only at the end ; and a greater or less portion of the head, 

 and generally of the neck, [in the adult,] devoid of feathers. The 

 force of their talons does not correspond with their stature, and 

 they make more use of their heak than of their claws. Their 

 wings are so long, that in walking they hold them half-extended. 

 They are of a cowardly disposition, and feed on carrion oftener 

 than on living prey : when they have gorged themselves, their 

 craw forms a large protuberance above the fourchette, a fetid 

 humour issues from their nostrils, and they are almost reduced 

 to a state of apathy. [They differ, moreover, from all the suc- 

 tncuius, stomach, nn<i intestines. The necond ceedine; groups, till we arrive at the Poultry, — with the sole ex- 



figure represents the termination ot the small ' ° ° v 



intestines, with the rectum iweiiing nciow tn cen ti 0n of the Secretarv genus (Gypoaeranus), which indeed might 



form the cloaca, anil two minute cocca placed at* * ° 



the junction of the great and smaii intestines.- ^ e ranged with them, — in possessing more than twelve cervical ver- 

 tebra? f: their fourchette, thoucrn cxiremeiv stout and wide, 

 is flattened as in the Owls : tne stirnai crest low, and reduced 

 anteriorly ; and the posterior edge ol the sternum (fig. 73), in 

 some of those of America, is d:nbly emarginated for some 

 time : they even further accord With the Owls in having a rib 

 less than the Falconine genera. 



The Vultures, properly so ;*a\ied. (Vultur, Cuv.) — 



Have a large and strong beak, the lostrils opening cross-wise at 

 its base, the head and neck without leathers or caruncles, and a 

 collar of long feathers, or of down, at the base of the neck. 

 They have hitherto been fouaa oiily on tne old continent [but 

 none of the tribe are met with in Australia, where the absence 

 of larger indigenous quadrupeds than the Kangaroos, and of 

 predatory animals that should leave the surplus of their 

 meals to putrefy, indicate that they could not be sup- Fi 

 ported.] J 



Fip.71. — AliroentaryCanal of the Common Buzzard 

 exhibiting the first expansion, or crow; and (be 

 low the divarication o[ the trachea) the proven 



g. 7*2. — Sternal apparatus of the Common Harrier. 

 N.B. '1 he keel (6J is rather more developed in the 

 Falcons ; less so in the Eagles. 



* Copied from M'Gillivray's Rapacious Birds oj WMm.- iid. 



t In the loug series of groups adverted to, the thirteenth vertebra 

 gene,.""- hnt uot ahvavs, hears a pair of minute ribs, which diminish 

 till they disappee- in some species ; if, theref*"-*. the thirteenth 

 vertehra is to be consid— «d as cervical in such casss, ..s uot bearing 



a rib, the difference is essentially trifling, and does not intrinsically 

 affect the above generalization —Ed. 



t The Alectura, Gray, which has been ignorantly classified with the 

 Vultures, is in every respect a true Poultry bird. 



