20 



ACCIPITRES. 



powers of life arc everywhere greater than the average 

 need there is for them ; and throughout the whole of 

 the organic world, whether vegetable or animal, the 

 surplus of one race feeds another, so that the season 

 provides for itself. When the heat of the sun acts, 

 if the surface be not mere dry sand, the powers 

 both of animal and vegetable life must obey it ; 

 hence, in those places the number of mountain 

 birds, mountain hares, and other mountain animals, 

 which are produced in the warm seasons, could not be 

 supported in the cold ; and thus, if it were not that 

 the mountain eagle and the mountain hawk thin their 

 numbers, they would be thinned by starvation. 



But a thinning of the numbers by starvation would 

 be a very unwholesome thinning. It would come, 

 not like the judicious pruning of the cultivator, who 

 removes a part in order to benefit that which survives, 

 but like the blight which falls upon and withers all 

 indiscriminately, so that the part which remains is of 

 little value. Hence, the provisions which nature 

 makes against redundancy and consequent want 

 and suffering, all come into operation before that 

 which they correct has done mischief. There is one 

 set of regulations (for the predatory animals are, in a 

 natural point of view, regulators and not destroyers) 

 which apply to all indiscriminately, whether disease 

 has begun or not, and to that class the bolder of the 

 rapacious birds may be considered as belonging. 

 There are others which clear off the weakly, for whom 

 there is, in the course of nature, little prospect of re- 

 covery; and to that class some of the rapacious birds, 

 and the ravens and others of the omnivorous order, 

 may be assigned. There are others still, which do 

 not attack, but clear the earth of the remains after 

 casualty has done its work. These do not kill, but 

 they, in general, feed ravenously; and they are so 

 furnished that they can scent, or otherwise discern, 

 their peculiar food from afar, and can range far and 

 wide over the country in quest of it. It will be seen 

 that one division of the birds of prey have this 

 character. 



These remarks are general, and apply to rapacious 

 animals of all kinds, as well as to the order Accipitres 

 among birds ; and as all animals prey upon organised 

 substances of some kind or other, they might, by the 

 same fastidious spirit of ignorance, be in turn accused 

 of similar cruelty. The lamb nibbles innumerable 

 plants, which, if let alone, would bear seeds, and 

 exhaust the soil till the grass disappeared, and 

 it could bear only sorrel, or moss, or some equally 

 unseemly and unprofitable crop ; and the warblers 

 consume myriads of caterpillars, which, but for them, 

 would not leave one green leaf in the grove. 



Such are the uses, in wild nature, of the Accipitres ; 

 and it is to wild nature only that the more powerful 

 ones belong. When man claims the produce of the 

 flock and the field, as the reward of his care and cul- 

 ture, they retire, and leave him to enjoy the fruits of 

 his labour. In their characters they are well defined ; 

 and when one of the order is known, there is little 

 danger of mistaking any of the others ; for their 

 form, their air, their flight, and all their appearances 

 and actions harmonise. 



Their general characters are : the bill of mode- 

 rate length, strongly made, hard, and firm in its tex- 

 ture, sharp in the tomia, of cutting edges, very much 

 hooked at the lip, and generally with a tooth in the 

 one mandible and a notch in the other. The feet 

 have four toes, three forward and one behind, but the 



outer ones arc sometimes reversible ; the whole armed 

 with very strong, sharp, and crooked claws (usually 

 called talons), those on the hinder toe and interior 

 front toe being generally the largest, and acting most 

 immediately against each other. The tarsi, or lower 

 portions of the legs (of the feet rather), are generally 

 short, very tendinous, and have strong bones ; but 

 they are firm rather than large. The bodies are 

 compact, and the feathers generally strong and not 

 easily ruffled. The eyes tire keen and piercing, the 

 scent in some of the species very acute, the motion 

 often rapid, and the general expression that of great 

 energy and equally great endurance. There are two 

 tribes very distinct in most of their habits : those 

 that prey by day, and those that prey by night or in 

 the twilight. 



THIBE I. DIURNAL BIKDS OF 

 PREY. These have the plumaire 

 firm and close, the flight rapid, 

 and the whole air and expression 

 energetic. The base of the beak 

 is covered by a naked mem- 

 brane called a cere, in which the 

 nostrils are pierced. Their eyes 

 are placed in the centre of the 

 head, so that they command 

 nearly the whole horizon. Their 

 sternum or breast bone is very 

 strong, and has a deep keel along the centre, to 

 give motion to the muscles that move the powerful 

 wings. The furca, or " merry-thought," the bone 

 which keeps the shoulder-bones apart, is a strong 

 semicircular arch ; the bones of their wings are very 

 fully developed, and in some of the more perfect the 

 fingers can be distinctly traced in the terminal bone. 

 All their bones, indeed, are remarkable for firmness 

 and strength ; and the hollow ones are powerfully 

 fortified by cross pieces at all parts where they have 

 to bear any great strain. Their wings vary in funn 

 according to the habit, but the quills or flying feathers 

 are very strong and stiff, as are also the tail feathers, 

 which are in general capable of being spread out like 

 a fan ; and they and the quills are well supported by 

 casements. The whole structure of the bird is a model 

 of the union of the greatest possible strength with 

 the least possible weight. There are two very dis- 

 tinct families, vultures and falcons, the latter admitting 

 of convenient subdivision into septs or sections. 



Vultures ( Vultur). These birds chiefly inhabit the 

 warmer countries, where, from the violent alternations 



of drought and rain, other animals are. subject to 

 many casualties. They are found chiefly in wild and 

 mountainous places; but they range far and wide, 

 feeding chiefly upon carrion, and not often attacking 

 living animals. They can endure hunger long, but 

 they feed greedily, even to stupefaction and incapa- 



