BUDS. 71 



V'lt'oout featliers, and only coveicd with a very slight down, or 

 a tew sciittiTud hairs. Their eyes are more prominent; those 

 of the eagle being buried more in the socket. Their claws are 

 shorter, and less hooked. The inside of the wing is covered 

 with a thick down, which is different in them from all other 

 birds of prey. Their attitude is not so upright as that 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 inhabitants of Europe ; the spotted 

 and the black vulture of Egypt ; the bearded vulture ; the Bra- 

 zilian vulture, and the king of the vultures, of South America. 

 They all agree in their nature ; being equally indolent, yet ra- 

 pacious and unclean.* 



* It would be idle to notice all the species of vultures which have beeu 

 enumerated by naturalists. To do so would, in fact, be to dwell for the 

 most part on a series of names, which have been const.mtly applied to tho 

 same species seen under different modifications, M. Vicillot remarks, that, 

 after having observed the liviug vultures under the various metamorphoses 

 which the difference of age occasions in their plumag-e, and liaving most at- 

 tentively studied the subject, he is fully convinced that few of their genera 

 are composed of as many species as some naturalists have adopted without 

 examination, and otliers have repeated without reflection. Brisson, Gmelin, 

 and Latham have described seven or eight species of vultures in Europe, 

 though it appears more than probable that there are but throe or four. 



Of all the characters drawn from the anterior portion of tho body in the 

 vulture tribe, the most distinct is the greater or less degree of nudity of the 

 head and neck. To this may be added, that they differ from the eagles with 

 which they have been vulgarly confounded, by having their eyes on a le^'el 

 with the head, while the eyes of the otliers are sunk >\ithin their orbits. 

 They differ also in their discovered ears, in the form of their claws, (those 

 of the eagle, properly so called, being almost semicircular,) and in the tarsi, 

 wliich, in the known species, are totally naked. Besides these characters, 

 which are merely methodical, there are others of a more prominent kind 

 which cannot lead into error, nor permit the confusion of tlie genuine vul- 

 tures with any of the other birds of prey. Their port is inclined, half hori. 

 zontal, a position indicating their grovelling nature ; whereas the eagle 

 stands proudly upright and almost perpendicular on its feet. On the ground, 

 to wliich, by the way, they are much attached, their wings are pendant, 

 and their tail trailed along. Accordingly, we fiud the end of the peufeathers 

 constantly worn. Their flight is heavy, and they experience considerable 

 difficulty in taking their full soar. Finally, they are the only birds of prey 

 that fly and live gregariously. 



TTieir mode of life, disposition, and habits, exhibit characters still more 

 marked. The vultures are cowardly, disgusting, gormandizing in the ex- 

 treme, voracious, and crueL They rarely attack living animals, but whry 

 they can no longer satiate themselves on dead bodies. They attack a sinyle 



