GENEBAL CHAEACTEKISTICS. 573 



and to travel over immense distances in an incredibly short space 

 of time. 



Their generic name sufficiently indicates that they live only by 

 rapine, and are naturally plunderers and bloodthirsty. They cor- 

 respond, in the class of Birds, with the Carnivora among Mammalia. 

 Like them, they live on animals, either dead or living ; like them, 

 too, they possess the strength and adroitness which are necessary 

 to satisfy their sanguinary appetites. 



With her ever- admirable foresight Nature has wisely limited 

 the reproduction of these destructive creatures the largest only 

 lay two eggs a year ; the others, on an average, five or six. It is 

 a singular thing that the female is often nearly a third bigger 

 than the male ; hence the name of " tarsel," given to the latter in 

 certain species. 



The Eaptores present none of the grace and charming prattle 

 of other races of birds. They enjoy no powers of song; their 

 sole utterance consists either of harsh cries or strange and plain- 

 tive modulations. Their plumage, which is nearly always of a 

 sombre colour, is sad and monotonous in its appearance. Destruc- 

 tion is the sole object of their existence ; they are the terror of all 

 the rest of the feathered creation, among which they every day 

 make numerous victims. They live alone, or in couples, in the 

 most deserted places ; it is only exceptionally that they gather 

 together in flocks, and then merely to devour in common some 

 putrid carrion. They are of a despotic and combative tempera- 

 ment, and will not suffer any rivals in their neighbourhood. They 

 practise absolutism in its strictest form, and reign as lords and 

 masters in the districts which they choose for their territory. 



The Eaptores are met with over the whole surface of the globe ; 

 the larger species inhabit lofty mountains, or seek a hiding-place in 

 the face of inaccessible and solitary cliffs. 



This order is divided into two sub-orders, the Nocturnal and 

 the Diurnal. This division is a very rational one, for it is 

 founded on dissimilarity of habits, which is owing to a difference 

 of organisation. 



