330 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



natives of the German Alps name the Lammergeyer, or Lamb 

 Vulture. It resembles the eagle in its confident and upright 

 bearing, and is the largest of European birds of prey, measur- 

 ing, when fully grown, upwards of four feet from beak to tail, 

 and in the expanse of its wings no less than nine or ten.* 

 It frequents the highest mountain chains in both Asia and 

 Africa. Of its audacity Bruce relates a striking instance. 

 While that celebrated Abyssinian traveller and his servants 

 were at dinner in the open air, with several dishes of boiled 

 goats' flesh before them, one of these Vultures came flying 

 slowly along the ground, and sat down close to the meat, with- 

 in the ring which the men had made round it. " There were 

 two large pieces, a leg and shoulder, lying upon a wooden 

 platter; into these he trussed both his claws and carried them 

 off." He was shot on his return for a further supply. 



II. FALCONID^E. -FALCONS. 



' Scaling yonder peak, 



I saw an eagle wheeling near its brow, 

 O'er the abyss ; his broad expanded wings 

 Lay calm and motionless upon the air, 

 As if he floated there without their aid, 

 By the sole act of his unlorded will, 

 That buoyed him proudly up." 



J. SHERIDAN KNOWLES' WILLIAM TELL. 



This group is distinguished from the preceding by the sharp 

 curved claws, and by the head being in all cases covered 

 with feathers. It includes the Eagles, Falcons, Kites, and 

 Buzzards. 



In entering upon this subject, there is one source of error 

 we should sedulously avoid. It is that which invests with 

 human feelings and passions the inferior animals ; which makes 

 us prone to regard one as brave, noble, generous, and humane, 

 and another as cowardly, base, selfish, and unpitying. Tried 

 by such a standard, the Eagle embodies all that is great, the 

 Vulture all that is despicable. We forget that both are birds 

 of prey, destined to fill important, though different, parts in 

 the scale of being, and both alike destitute of those higher 

 motives which the use of such phraseology on our part would 

 imply. With this brief caution, we shall not hesitate to avail 



* Bennett. 



