632 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



Lastly, the oesophagus is dilated into a capacious crop, the 

 gizzard is thin, the intestinal caeca are rudimentary, and the 

 intestinal canal is generally short and wide. 



In the Falconida (fig. 348, B) the head and neck are always 

 clothed with feathers, and the eyes are more or less sunk in 



Fig. 350. Head of Vulture (Neophron percnoptenb. 



the head, and provided with a superciliary ride or eyebrow. 

 It is to a great extent to the presence of this rilge that many 

 of these birds owe their fearless and bold expresion. In this 

 family are the Falcons, Hawks, Buzzards, Kites, Harriers, and 

 Eagles, most of which are so well known that my description 

 is unnecessary. 



The Old World Vultures ( Vulturida}, as showi by ?rofessor 

 Huxley, are really closely allied to the Falconida. proper, from 

 which they are hardly separable as a family. They live how- 

 ever, principally upon carrion, are destitute of aneyebro\v,and 

 have the head and neck frequently naked or covered only >ith 

 a short down (fig. 350). In this group are the typical ""Vul- 

 tures " ( Vultur, Neophron, &c.), and the great Bearded Vultuv> 

 or Lammergeyer (Gypaetos barbatus) of the mountain-ranges 

 of the south of Europe and the west of Asia. 



The American Vultures form the separate family of the 

 Cathartidce. They have no eyebrows ; the head and upper 

 part of the neck are unfeathered ; the bill is not powerfully 

 raptorial ; the feet have the anterior toes partially webbed ; the 

 talons are blunt and little curved ; there is no inferior larynx ; 

 and the gullet dilates into a very large crop. They all feed 



