164 



AVES. 



(fig. 72, a) 

 incidental 



IS semicircular and very wide, the better to resist the violent pressvire of the humerus 

 to a rapid flight. [The young undergo no change of feather until their second 

 autumn ; and they renew their plumage slowly, and in no 

 instance more than once in the year ; its seasonal change 

 being confined to a slight wearing off, rather than a natural 

 shedding, of the margins of the feathers : in several species, 

 however, the colour indicative of maturity is partially ac- 

 quired, previously to moulting, by a change of hue in the first 

 or nestling plumage. The eggs of Accipitrine Birds are 

 nearly spherical ; and those of the present division are gene- 

 rally more or less spotted or blotched with rusty-brown. 

 The young are at first densely clad in short soft dovMi.] 



Linnaeus made only two genera, which are two natural 

 divisions, — the Vultures and the Falcons. 



Fifj.71-— AlimentaryCanal of the Common B' 



exhibiting the first exp«nsion, or croM; and (be- tO a State of apathy 



low the divaiicatiun of the trachea) the proven 



tricuius, stomach, and intesti 



figure represents the termination of th^ 



intestines, with the 



form the eloaca, and two 



the junction of the great 



The Vultures {Vultur, Lin.) — 

 Have the eyes even with the head ; the tarsi reticulated, or, in 

 other words, covered with small scales ; the beak lengthened, 

 curved only at the end ; and a greater or less portion of the head, 

 and generally of the neck, [in the adult,] devoid of feathers. The 

 force of their talons does not correspond with their stature, and 

 they make more use of their beak than of their claws. Their 

 wings are so long, that in walking they hold them half-extended. 

 They are of a cowardly disposition, and feed on carrion oftener 

 than on living prey : when they have gorged themselves, their 

 craw forms a large protuberance above the fourchette, a fetid 

 humour issues from their nostrils, and they are almost reduced 

 [They differ, moreover, from all the suc- 

 Ij ceeding groups, tiU we arrive at the Poultry, — with the sole ex ■ 

 ■o'n™nut"i'ffica u'"ed 'a"t ccptiou of thc Secretary genus {Gypogeranm), which indeed might 

 be ranged with them, — in possessing more than twelve cervical ver- 

 tebrae f: their fourchette, though extremely stout and wide, 

 is flattened as in the Owls ; the sternal crest low, and reduced 

 anteriorly ; and the posterior edge of the sternum (fig. 73), in 

 some of those of America, is doubly emarginated for some 

 time : they even further accord with the Owls in having a rib 

 less than the Falconine genera. 



The Vultures, properly so called, {Vultur, Cuv.) — 



Have a large and strong beak, the nostrils opening cross-wise at 

 its base, the head and neck without feathers or caruncles, and a 

 collar of long feathers, or of down, at the base of the neck. 

 They have hitherto been found only on the old continent [but 

 none of the tribe are met with in AustraUa, where the absence 

 of larger indigenous quadrupeds than the Kangaroos, and of 

 predatory animals that should leave the surplus of their 

 meals to putrefy, indicate that they could not be sup- 

 ported.] X 



73.— sternal apparatus of the Common Ha 

 .B. '1 he keel (bj is rather more developed i 

 alcons ; less bo in the Eairles. 



of I 



* Copied from M'Gil 



t In the Ion 

 generally, but not alwayi 

 till they disappear in i 



rtebi 



i to be 



; Rapnrious Birds o] Britain.— Ed. 

 ips adverted to, the thirteenth vertebra 

 irs a pair of minute ribs, which diminish 

 species ; if, therefore, the thirteenth 



ch I 



"g 



a rib, the dilTerei\ce is essentially trifiinu^, and does r 

 affect the above generalization — Ed. 



t The /llectnra, Gray, which has been ignorantly cln 

 Vultures, is in every respect a true Poultry bird. 



