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 vertebrae 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 Phasianida and 

 Vulturida 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 vertebrae, 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 vertebras 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, PI. VIII. — It 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 Galliiiaza 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 voracious birds emit on 

 being handled. The name under which the bird is known to all our English colonists, 

 namely Turkey-Buzzard, and M. Vieillot's generic 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. l67 : — " Gallinarum cum Accipitribus afBnitateni aliquam 

 illud indicare poterit, quod animalis cibi cupidinem qui in cohortatibus nostris Gallinis 

 conspicitur, domesticse forte vitje 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 woXuyova, and the Raptores as oXiyoyova. Pliny says, " Alterum Tetraonum 

 genus Vulturum magnitudinem excedit, quorum et colorem reddit:" alluding, pro- 

 bably, to the Capercailzie. 



latter 



