324 



ZOOLOGY. 



covers the osseous bill externally, converting it into a sort of 

 cutting and tearing instrument ; but the bird never has any 

 true teeth : hence there is no mastication, properly so called. 

 In birds which live on flesh and tear their prey the falcons 

 (Fig. 303), the eagles (Fig. 295), and the vultures (Fig. 305) 

 the upper mandible is short, strong, hooked, and terminated 

 by a sharp point ; it is occasionally serrated, and the more 

 or less sanguinary character of the bird may be judged of by 



Fig. 302 The Kite. 



Fig. 303. The Falcon. 



these structures. Thus the falcon (Fig. 303), which has all 

 these characters of the bill in the highest perfection, is the 

 boldest of all birds of prey ; whilst the kite and vulture, in 

 which the bill is softer, less hooked, and not serrated, are 

 cowardly ; the vulture chiefly living on dead or dying animals. 

 Sea birds which live on fish have the 

 bill long and hooked (Fig. 304), but 

 much longer and softer than in the 

 true birds of prey already spoken of. 

 In others, which search for small fishes 

 and reptiles which may be easily swal- 

 lowed, the bill becomes still more 

 elongated, resembling a pair of pincers. 

 Such we find in the kingfishers (Fig. 

 310) and the cigogne a sac (adjutant), 

 (Fig. 306). Birds which live on insects 

 (insectivorous), worms, grains, and 

 fruits, have nothing of the kind. In 

 the first, the bill is very slender, and but 

 slightly curved, or even straight, and much elongated (Fig. 

 307) ; but if they take small insects on the wing, then their 

 bill is short and broad and widely cleft, as in swallows, goat- 

 suckers (Fig. 308), &c. The granivorous have the bill short, 



Fig. 304. The Fulmar 

 Petrel. 



