48 BIRDS OF ritEi'. 



Besides, what we have already said concerning' the stuffing 

 and preparing of birds, there are many details connected with 

 particular species which demand our attention, and which can 

 only be described as regarding that species. It will, however, 

 be impossible for us to enter into all these minutely, but only 

 give a few examples as general guides. We shall take these 

 in systematic succession. 



ORDER L RAPACES, OR BIRDS OF PREY. 



In the preservation of the feathers of Birds, little else is 

 required to prevent the dissipation of their colours than to keep 

 them as much as possible from air and light. These two agents, 

 which were indispensable to their beauty and perfection in a 

 living state, now exercise their influence as destroyers, and that 

 influence will sooner or later work its ends according to the 

 quality, texture, or colour of the object with which it is con- 

 tending. The feathers are now deprived of two agents, which 

 in a living state contributed to their vigour and their beauty, 

 namely, the internal circulating juices which they received 

 from the body of the animal, and the external application of 

 oil by the bill of the bird, supplied from a gland which is 

 placed over the rump of all birds. 



The colours of the rapacious tribes are not so evanescent as 

 those of many others, as they, for the most part, are composed 

 of intense browns and blacks, which are not so easily absorbed 

 by light or air, so that they continue for a very long period 

 without any sensible difference. There are, however, certain 

 other parts which are liable to almost immediate change of co- 

 lour after the death of the animals, and these are the cere and 

 skin of the legs and feet, and the naked skin on the heads 

 and necks of Vultures and their congeners. We shall treat 

 of these individually. 



OF VULTURES. 



The birds of the genera VULTUR, and CATHARTES of 

 Temminck's arrangement, are distinguished from their heads 

 and generally the upper parts of their necks and a spot 



