THE VULTURE. 



479 



CHAPTER LXXXIV. 



OF THE VULTURE AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



THE first rank in the description of birds, 

 has been given to the eagle ; not because it 

 is stronger or larger than the vulture, but 

 because it is more generous and bold. The 

 eagle, unless pressed by famine, will not stoop 

 to carrion ; and never devours but what he 

 has earned by his own pursuit. The vulture, 

 on the contrary, is indelicately voracious ; 

 and seldom attacks living animals, when it 

 can be supplied with the dead. The eagle 

 meets and singly opposes his enemy ; the 

 vulture, if it expects resistance, calls in the 

 aid of its kind, and basely overpowers its 

 prey by a cowardly combination. Putrefac- 

 tion and stench, instead of deterring, only 

 serves to allure them. The vulture seems 

 among birds, what the jackal and hyaena are 

 among quadrupeds, who prey upon carcasses, 

 and root up the dead. 



Vultures may be easily distinguished from 

 all those of the eagle kind, by the nakedness 

 of their heads and necks, which are without 

 feathers, and only covered with a very slight 

 down, or a few scattered hairs. Their eyes 

 are more prominent ; those of the eagle being 

 buried more in the socket. Their claws are 

 shorter, and less hooked. The inside of the 

 wing is covered with a thick down, which is 

 different in them from all other birds of prey. 

 Their attitude is not so upright as that of 

 the eagle; and their flight more difficult and 

 heavy. 



In this tribe we may range the golden, the 

 ash-coloured, and the brown vulture, which 

 are inhabitants of Europe; the spotted and 

 the black vulture of Egypt ; the bearded vul- 

 ture; the Brasilian vulture, and the king of 

 the vultures, of South America. They all 

 agree in their nature ; being equally indolent, 

 yet rapacious and unclean. 



The GOLDEN VULTURE seems to be the fore- 

 most of the kind ; and is in many things like 

 the golden eagle, but larger in every propor- 

 tion. From the end of the beak to that of 



the tail, it is four feet and a half; and to the 

 claws' end, forty-five inches. The length of 

 the upper mandible is almost seven inches ; 

 and the tail twenty-seven in length. The 

 lower part of the neck, breast, and belly, are 

 of a red colour; but on the tail it is more 

 faint, and deeper near the head. The fea- 

 thers are black on the back; and on the 

 wings and tail of a yellowish brown. Others 

 of the kind differ from this in colour and 

 dimensions; but they are all strongly mark- 

 ed by their naked heads, and beak straight 

 in the beginning, but hooking at the point. 



They are still more strongly marked by 

 their nature, which, as has been observed, is 

 cruel, unclean, and indolent. Their sense of 

 smelling, however, is amazingly great ; and 

 nature, for this purpose, has given them two 

 large apertures or nostrils without, and an 

 extensive olfactory membrane within. Their 

 intestines are formed differently from those of 

 the eagle kind ; for they partake more of the 

 formation of such birds as live upon grain. 

 They have both a crop and a stomach ; which 

 may be regarded as a kind of gizzard, from 

 the extreme thickness of the muscles of which 

 it is composed. In fact, they seem adapted 

 inwardly, not only for being carnivorous, but 

 to eat corn or whatsoever of that kind comes 

 in their way. 



This bird, which is common in many parts 

 of Europe, and but too well known on the 

 western continent, is totally unknown in 

 England. In Egypt, Arabia, and many other 

 kingdoms of Africa and Asia, vultures are 

 found in great abundance. The inside down 

 of their wing is converted into a very warm 

 and comfortable kind of fur, and is common- 

 ly sold in the Asiatic markets. 



Indeed, in Egypt, this bird seems to be of 

 singular service. There are great flocks of 

 them in the neighbourhood of Grand Cairo, 

 which no person is permitted to destroy. 

 The service they render the inhabitants, is 



