256 NATURAL HIS TOUT. 



The Falcones, or Hawks, include in their number more kinds of rapacious birds than the other 

 two sub-orders. All the Vultures, the Caracaras, the Harriers, the Sparrow-Hawks, the Buzzards, 

 Eagles, Kites, and Falcons, together numbering some four hundred different species, are classified as 

 Falcones. Only one species of Osprey is known, which is found nearly all over the world ; and about 

 two hundred different kinds of Owls remain to represent the STRIGES. 



ORDER ACCIPITRES. SUB-ORDER FALCONES. 



The first sub-order is divided into two families, the first to be noticed being the Vultures 

 (Vulturidcv), which is again sub-divided into two sections, the Vultures of the Old World (Vulturinc?) 

 and the Vultures of the New World (Sarcorhamphince). 



THE FIRST SUB-FAMILY OF THE VULTURID.E. THE OLD WORLD VULTURES (Vulturitue). 



These Vultures are neither to be recommended for their habits nor for their personal appearance. 



In fact, in both these respects they are rather repulsive birds, but useful withal in hot climates, 



where they act as scavengers, and clear away much putrid matter and decaying substances, which but 



for their intervention would prove most offensive. They are all 



inhabitants of tropical, or at least of warm, countries ; and it is 



only on rare occasions that they wander into the North of 



Europe or occur in the British Islands. Both the Old and the 



New Worlds have their Vultures, but the naturalist has no 



difficulty in telling at a glance to which hemisphere the bird he 



is looking at belongs, for all the Vultures of the New World WLL OF EGYI>TIAX VULTURE, TO SHOW 



have a hole through t/teir nose or, in other words, want the FORM OF NOSTRIL. (After Keuiemans.) 



wall of bone which divides one nostril from the other; in the 



Vultures of the Old World this bony wall is present so that the nostrils resemble those of other 



ordinary birds. 



Besides their perforated nostril, the American. Vultures differ from the Old World species in 



having no after-shaft to the feathers, therein resembling the Owls. This character has led some 



naturalists to consider the New World Vultures as constituting a separate family, which bears the 



name of Cathartidce; but although the absence of an after-shaft is 

 a striking feature, yet the habits of the birds so closely resemble 

 those of their Old World cousins, that it seems unnatural to 

 separate them widely in any scheme of classification. The head 

 of a Vulture, whatever locality he may be from, proclaims the 

 nature of the bird at once, as it is always bare of feathers, 01- 

 nearly so : sometimes a few scattered tufts of down are seen on 

 the head and neck, but never any true feathers, as in the case of 



BILL OF TURKEY VULTURE, TO SHOW . ' ^ 



THE PERFORATED NOSTRIL. the other birds of prey. Ihe Vultures feed on the ground, where 



they walk with comparative ease, their large feet being fitted for 



progression on the earth, and their toes not being prehensile or capable of bending to the same extent 

 as in the other Hawks. This formation of the foot prevents them from striking down or snatching 

 their prey, as an Eagle or a Hawk would do ; and they do not carry food to their young, but devour 

 the carcase or carrion where it falls, and then feed the nestlings by throwing up food from their crop. 

 They are all birds of powerful flight, and are capable of sustaining a prolonged soar in the air 

 without any apparent motion of the wings. 



As to the way in which Vultures discover their prey, the opinion of naturalists has for a long 

 time been divided, and controversy has waxed hot upon the subject, the question being whether the 

 Vulture possesses a more than usually keen sense of sight, or whether his sense of smell is so 

 powerful as to enable him to scent a decaying carcase at a greater distance than other birds can do. 

 The experiments of various travellei'S seem to prove that both the senses of sight and smell are 

 possessed by the Vulture in no ordinary degree ; but the balance of evidence seems to prove that it 



