824 



VULTURE. 



The general characters of the vultures are : the 

 eyes flush with the head, and not enfonced under a 

 brow, or standing prominent to command a horizon ; 

 the tarsi are not covered by protecting plates, but 

 reticulated, covered with small scales let into a sort 

 of network, as they generally are in the wading birds ; 

 the beak is long, nearly straight ia the greater part 

 of the length of its cutting edges, and hooked only in 

 a portion toward the tip ; a greater or smaller portion 

 of the head, and even of the neck, is bare of feathers, 

 and if not absolutely naked skin, covered only with 

 thin short and soft down ; the power of their talons is 

 by no means in proportion to the size of the birds, 

 and they are not much used as weapons ; the bill is 

 the member upon which they chiefly depend, and it 

 has more the character of a cutting than of a killing 

 instrument ; their wings are so very long, that they 

 are obliged to carry them partially expanded when 

 they walk ; they are loosely made and cowardly birds, 

 and feed chiefly upon carrion, and rarely upon living 

 prey. After they have gorged themselves with food, 

 their craw forms a large protuberance beneath the 

 furcal bone, a flow of foetid humour distils from the 

 nostrils, and they are often in such a state of stupidity 

 and inaction, that they are incapable of escape or de- 

 fence, and one may catch them or knock them down 

 with a stick. Their office in Nature is a foul one, 

 and when they have performed it, they are foul and 

 offensive birds but not upon that account the less 

 in character. 



Cuvier divides them into four sections, which gra- 

 dually approach a little more to the Falconidce, though 

 the best formed of the vultures are very inferior to 

 the worst-formed of that grand division of the Acci- 

 pitres. These sections are Vultur, Cathartus, Per- 

 cropterus, and Gypdetus. 



VCLTUR. Has the beak thick and strong, with 

 the nostrils placed transversely at its base ; the head 

 .and neck without feathers, and the skin smooth, with- 

 out caruncles or warty protuberances. They have 

 also the neck surrounded by a collar of produced 

 feathers or down on the lower part, between the 

 naked portion and that which is covered by the regular 

 plumage of the body. Those which have three cli- 

 inacters are found in the eastern continent only ; and 

 the difference in the American ones which range in 

 this section or subgenus will be noticed. The spe- 

 cies have been much confounded by authors, and 

 many ridiculous stories have been told concerning 

 them. 



Tlte Tawny Vulture (V.fulvus), is a large bird, and 

 has been long known to natural history. It is pretty 

 generally distributed over the warmer parts of the 

 eastern continent, occurring in the mountains. The 

 general colour of the mature bird before it is affected 

 by old aee, is grey or brown, and fawn on the upper 

 part ; the down on the head and neck ash-colour ; the 

 collar white, or white mixed with brown ; the quills and 

 tail-feathers brown ; the bill and feet leadcolour ; and 

 the belly in general white. The total length of the 

 bird is about three feet and a half, and the extent of 

 the wings not less than eight feet. The down on the 

 head is very short, but it forms a sort of tuft on the 

 occiput; the skin of the upper part of the breast over 

 the craw is furnished with a tuft of hair, and when 

 the craw is empty it falls in and forms a pit ; but after 

 a full meal it swells out and becomes a protuberance. 

 It is subject to considerable varieties of colour at 

 different ages ; and additional diversities have been 



produced by confounding it with others. BufFon, for 

 instance, has given the figure of it along with the de- 

 scription of another species. 



In summer it appears in numbers on the Alps, 

 the Pyrenees, and other mountains of the south of 

 Europe, but it retires into Africa in the winter, over 

 which continent it is pretty generally distributed ; 

 but it is everywhere of a roving disposition. It is not 

 a very handsome bird under any circumstances ; and 

 when it is in a state of repose, it retracts the neck 

 between the bones of the shoulders, and nearly con- 

 ceals the head in the feathers. 



The Brown Vulture (F. cinerem) is a more daring 

 bird, and often larger in size than the preceding. It 

 is more apt to attack live animals, especially such as 

 are wounded, or in a weakly condition. It is blackish 

 brown on the upper part, with the collar of long and 

 bristling feathers advancing obliquely toward the nape, 

 where there is a tuft of feathers. The feet and the 

 naked skin at the base of the bill are bluish violet. 

 The feathers on the tibiee are long, and hang down 

 considerably beyond the tarsal joints ; but the tarsi 

 themselves are not feathered, as alleged by some. 

 Its colour changes much with age, and it is generally 

 distributed over the wilds of the south, and also dis- 

 cursive. 



The Eared Vulture (V. auricularii) is an African 

 species of a blackish colour, with a fleshy crest on 

 each side of the head under the openings of the ears. 

 There is no down on the head and neck of this spe- 

 cies ; the naked skin on these is reddish and violet, 

 that on the front of the neck black ; the under part 

 of the body is brown ; the bill yellow at the base, 

 and horn-colour toward the tip. It is a large bird, 

 and remarkable for the stretch of its wings, which 

 are said to be at least three times the length of the 

 body, and that, in the full-grown bird, is not less than 

 three feet. It is abundant in the wild and elevated 

 districts of Southern Africa. Some of the vultures 

 of India have a considerable resemblance to this one, 

 only the fleshy appendages to the sides of the head 

 and the upper part of the neck are not so prominent. 

 It is by no means improbable that there are many 

 varieties differing a little from these in the wild parts 

 of central Africa and of Southern Asia. 



The American vultures which have' the nearest re- 

 semblance to those now described have the mem- 

 brane, at the base of the bill, covered with fleshy 

 tubercles ; and in some of the species the naked parts 

 are very fine in their tints of colour, and exhibit a 

 brilliant play of prismatic colours ; but these go off 

 when the birds are dead. 



The King of the Vultures (V. papa). This bird is 

 about the size of a goose ; and remarkable for its 

 changes of colour, both at different ages and in differ- 

 ent individuals, so that it is not easy to form any one 

 description so as to apply to it. In its first plumage 

 it is blackish, then it becomes variegated with yellow, 

 next the feathers on the body are fawn colour, and 

 the quills and collar black. The naked parts of the 

 head are of various brilliant colours, the predominat- 

 ing ones being coral red and yellowish with purple ; 

 but they vary so "much that they cannot be accu- 

 rately described. The caruncles are toothed some- 

 thing like the comb of a cock. This is a bird of the 

 low grounds rather than of the naked mountains, and 

 it is said to nestle in holes of trees, and to have two 

 eggs in a hatch. 

 . The Condor ( V. condor) is the celebrated vulture 



