THE VULTURE. 8 ( J 



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 inha- 

 bitants of Europe ; the spotted and the black 

 vulture of Egypt ; the bearded vulture, the Bra- 

 silian 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 foremost 

 of the kind, and is in many things like the 

 golden eagle, but larger in every proportion. 

 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 

 feathers 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 marked 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, un- 

 clean, 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 mem- 

 brane within. Their intestines are formed diffe- 

 rently from those of the eagle kind j for they par- 



