the Vulture, igs 



mine, will not stoop to carrion, and never devours but 

 what it has earned by its own labour and pursuit : the 

 vulture, on the contrary, is indelicately voracious, and 

 seldom attacks living animals when it can find a supply 

 from those that are dead : in short, the vulture appears 

 amongst birds what the jackal and hyaena are amongst 

 quadrupeds, for it delights in the most noxious putri- 

 dity, and is frequently known to rootup new made graves. 



The vulture may easily be distinguished from every 

 species of the eagle kind by the nakedness of their heads 

 and necks, which are without feathers, and only co- 

 vered with a very slight down, or a few scattered hairs; 

 their eyes likewise are more prominent; and their claws 

 are shorter, and not so much hooked. 



The golden vulture seems to take pre-eminence i;i 

 this rapacious and carnivorous race ; this animal, toge- 

 ther with the brown and the ash-coloured, are natives 

 of Europe ; the spotted and black vulture, of Egypt ; 

 but the bearded, the Brasilian, and the king of the 

 vultures, all belong to South America. The golden 

 vulture measures four feet and a half in length from 

 the extremity of the beak to that of the tail : the lower 

 part Of the neck, the breast, and belly are red ; but 

 towards the tail the colour becomes more faint : on the 

 back the feathers are black, and those on the wings of 

 a yellowish brown. All birds of this class are both in- 

 dolent and cruel ; and their intestines are formed dif- 

 ferent from those of the eagle kind : their sense of smell- 

 ing is acute beyond conception ; and their beaks strait 

 at the beginning, but hooked towards the point. 



The vulture, though extremely common in many parts 

 of Europe, and but too well known on the western con- 

 tinent, is fortunately a stranger upon the English shores ; 

 yet, notwithstanding their carnivorous and rapacious 



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