AVES RAPACES. 

 RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



The species of this order may generally be distin- 

 guished from the other land birds by their form, which 

 adapts them for tearing and devouring the flesh of ani- 

 mals. It is true some of them swallow insects, mice, 

 shrews, frogs, and other animals, entire ; but all have 

 the means of tearing up flesh, inasmuch as they are 

 furnished with a bill, either short or of moderate length, 

 having a sharp hooked tip, curving over the extremity 

 of the lower mandible. Most of them have long sharp 

 curved claws, with which they pierce their victims ; but 

 there are species among the vultures which employ 

 their claws, not for seizing live animals, but for hold- 

 ing down their food while they tear it. The feet of 

 all are furnished with four toes, placed on the same 

 level, fleshy, and as it were, padded beneath, where 

 they are covered with small rounded or conical papillae. 

 Their tongue is fleshy, on the back horny, sagittate 

 and papillate at the base. The intestinal canal varies 

 in the different species ; but the oesophagus is always 

 wide, frequently dilated into a kind of crop ; the pro- 

 ventriculus studded with cylindrical glandules secret- 



