Z VULTURID^E. 



Vultur fulvus, Fulvous Vulture, HARVEY, Fauna of Cork, p. 4. 

 Griffon Vulture, THOMPSON, Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. xv, 



art. 31. 



VULTUR. Generic Characters. Beak strong, thick and deep, base covered 

 with a cere ; upper mandible straight until it reaches the point, where it is hooked 

 abruptly ; under mandible straight, rounded, and becoming narrower towards the 

 point. Head naked or covered with short down. Nostrils naked and pierced 

 diagonally in the cere. Feet very strong, furnished with claws slightly hooked ; 

 the middle toe very long, and united at the base to the external toe. Wings 

 long j the first quill-feather short, the fourth the longest. 



THE BRITISH BIRDS in this History will be divided into 

 five principal orders, in accordance with the views of mo- 

 dern systematic Ornithologists, more particularly those of 

 this country. The first of these orders, the EAPTORES, or 

 Birds of Prey, as they are usually called, includes three 

 families, the Vultures, the Falcons, and the Owls ; and 

 although the Vultures are commonly confined to the 

 more tropical countries of the Old and of the New World, 

 the capture of two examples of different species, one in 

 Ireland, and the other in England, entitle them to a notice 

 in this work. 



Vultures are most numerous in warm countries, where 

 a high degree of temperature induces rapid decomposition. 

 Their food is chiefly animal substance in a decaying state, 

 and their business in nature, as observed by Mr. Vigors, 

 is to clear away with rapidity those putrifying remains 

 which, if allowed to accumulate, might produce pestilence 

 and death. The same services rendered to man by nu- 

 merous Storks in the cities of India, and by troops of 

 dogs in Constantinople, are performed on a much more ex- 

 tended scale by Vultures. So valuable are these services, 

 that Vultures are almost universally protected from mo- 

 lestation or injury either by local legislation or by com- 

 mon consent. Great powers of smell have been attribu- 

 ted to them ; and it appears certain that they possess also 



