154 BRANCH VERTEBRATA. 



millions being thus congregated, it is astonishing how 

 each bird, in returning, should go straight to its own 

 mate and nest. 



ORDER RAPTORES* (rap to'rez). 



The Birds of this order have hooked beaks and power- 

 ful talons. The plumage of the sexes is usually unlike, 

 and the offspring for two or three seasons resembles the 

 mother-bird. The male of most species is smaller than 

 the female, and not quite so plain in its color. 



The order is thus tabulated : 



f EYES LATERAL Head naked. . . Claws blunt. Vulture, 



RAPTO R ES. \ EYES LATERAL Head feathered. Claws sharp. Hawk. 



[ EYES DIRECTED FORWARD. Outer toe versatile Owl. 



The American Vultures, being designed in the economy 

 of nature to dispose of carrion, possess a strong beak for 

 dismembering the dead bodies on which they feed. If 

 one soaring aloft detects with its telescopic eye a carcass, 

 the change of its flight from a circular sweep to a right 

 line of descent is probably noticed by many others too 



I noticed any diminution. Tho uproar continued all night. At last, the day 

 approached, the noise began to abate a little, and long before we could distin- 

 guish objects, the pigeons commenced to start, and at sunrise, all that could fly 

 had disappeared. Now it was the wolves' turn, the howls of which saluted our 

 ears. Foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, rats, opossums, and martens, bounding, run- 

 ning, climbing, pressed to the quarry, whilst eagles and falcons of different 

 species flew down from the air to take their part of such rich booty. The sports- 

 men then, in their turn, entered into the midst of the dead, the dying, and the 

 wounded. The pigeons were piled in heaps, each took what he wished, and the 

 pigs were left to satiate themselves on the remainder." 



* The birds of prey do not deserve the name of "robbers." Their carnivor- 

 ous propensities are only in accordance with their physiological structure, which 

 demands animal food. Their place in the economy of nature is therefore as fixed 

 as that of the animals on which they prey ; and to associate with them notions 

 of cruelty and rapine is unwarrantable and irreverent. They do not, it is true, 

 charm our ears by their songs, nor delight our eye with their colors for either 

 would betray their presence to their victims and frustrate the design of their 

 creation but they faithfully perform their mission as scavengers. They also, like 

 the carnivora generally, serve to prevent the undue increase of the Herbivora. 



