166 



AVES. 



and the head, hut not the neck, devoid of feathers. They are hirds of moderate size, and in strength 

 do not approach the Vultures properly so called ; hence they are even more addicted to carrion and 

 all sorts of filth, which attract them from afar. They do not even disdain to feed on excrement. 



The White Neophron (V. percnopterus, Lin.) — Little larger than a Raven: the adult male [and probably also 

 the old female] white, with black quill-feathers ; the female and young brown. [It is common in Africa, and the 

 countries bordering the Mediterranean ; rare in the north of Europe : has been once killed in England.] It fol- 

 lows the caravans in the desert, to devour all that dies. 



The Urubu (V. jota, Ch. Bonap.), or Carrion Crow of the Anglo-Americans.— The same size and form as the 

 preceding, but with a stouter bill, and the head entirely naked ; plumage wholly deep black. It abounds in the 

 temperate and hot parts of America, [and is generally ranged in Cathartes. One or more additional true Neo- 

 phrons, however, exist in Africa.] 



The Griffins {Gypdetos, Storr), — 



Placed hy Gmelin in his genus Falco, approximate the Vultures rather in their hahits and conformation : 

 they have the eyes even with the head ; the claws proportionally feeble ; wings half-extended when at 

 rest ; the craw, when full, projecting at the bottom of the neck : hut their head is completely covered 

 with feathers ; [and they have only thirteen cervical vertebrae, which is one more than in any of the 

 Falcons ; the Neophrons and Gallinazos possessing fourteen, and the Condors and true Vultures fifteen. 

 The sternum is proportionally short, and very broad.] Their distinctive characters consist in a very 

 strong, straight beak, hooked at the point, and inflated on the curve ; nostrils covered [owl-like] with 

 stiff hairs directed forward ; and a pencil of similar hairs under the beak : their tarsi are short, and 

 feathered to the toes ; and their wings long, having the third quill longest. 



The Bearded Griffin, or Lammer-geycr, (V barbatus, and Falco barbatus, Gm.).— This is the largest bird of prey 

 belonging to the Eastern Continent: it inhabits the high chains of mountains, but is not very common. It 

 nestles in inaccessible acclivities ; attacks Lambs, Goats, the Chamois, and even, it is said, sleeping Man [or 

 persons standing on the edge of a precipice] ; it is pretended that children have been sometimes carried away by 

 it, [a statement recently confirmed by facts, in more than one instance]. Its method is to force animals over steep 

 precipices, and to devour them when disabled by the fall. It does not, however, refuse dead bodies. Its length 

 is nearly five feet (French), and extent of wing from nine to ten feet. This bird is the Phene of the Greeks, and 

 the Ossifraga of the Latins. [The species of the Himmalayas is considered to be different.] 



The Falcons {Falco, Lin.) — 



Constitute the second, and by much the most numerous division of the diurnal birds of prey. They 

 have the head and neck covered with feathers : their eye-brows [except in the Ospreys] form a pro- 

 jection which occasions the eye to appear sunk, and imparts a very different character to their phy- 

 siognomy from that of the Vultures : the majority of them subsist on living prey ; but they differ much 

 in the amount of courage displayed in the pursuit of it. Their first plumage is often differently 

 coloured from the adult, and they do not [in most instances] assume the latter for three or four 

 years, — a circumstance which has occasioned the species to have been greatly multiplied by nomencla- 

 tors. The female is generally one-third larger than the male, which, on this account, has been named 

 a tercel. 



It is necessary to subdivide this genus first into two sections. 

 The Falcons, properly so called, {Falco, Bechstein), commonly termed the Noble Birds of Prey, — 



Compose the first. They are the most courageous in 

 proportion to their size, a quality which is derived from 

 the power of their armature and wings. Their beak 

 (fig. 74), curved from its base, has a sharp tooth on each 

 side near the point ; and the second quill of their wings 

 is the longest, the first nearly equalling it, which renders 

 the entire wing longer and more pointed. From this, 

 also, result particular habits : the length of the quills of 

 their wings weakens their efforts to ascend vertically, and 

 renders their forward flight, in a calm state of the at- 

 mosphere, very oblique, necessitating them, when they 

 wish to rise directly, to fly against the wind. They are 



Fit:- 



-Beak of .Ter Falcon. 



