ACCIPITRES.- 



-BIRDS.- 



-VCLTI'UID^. 



title 01* predaceous birds, as they rarely attack a li\-ing 

 prey, but content themselves with feeding upon tlie 

 flesh of such animals as have already died. Their 



1^1. 



Head of the Tawny Vulture (Gyps fulvus.) 



fvvourite food, in fact, is canion, in the midst of which 

 they revel in a state of the highest enjojTuent, often 

 gorgmg themselves to such a degree with this savoury 

 banquet, that they become utterly incapable of flight. 

 From the nature of their diet they also acquire an 

 abominable odour; and taking these facts into considera- 

 tion, it is hardly to be wondered at that most people 

 feel a certain degree of disgust associated with the idea 

 of a vulture. But in the hot countiies frequented by 

 these birds, they are viewed with very ditl'ercnt eyes ; 

 there their mission as scavengers is recognized. They 

 are seen poiuing Aovm in flocks upon an abimdant sup- 

 ply of their favourite food, and soon clear away every 

 vestige of animal matter, even from a large carcase ; 

 thus preventing those pestilential eftlu™ which woiJd 

 speedily emanate from a mass of animal matter exposed 

 to the tropical sun, and poison the air in its vicinity. 

 Viewed in this light, the vultures must be regarded 

 as benetaetoi's of the human race in the countries 

 frequented by them, and in most oriental cities they 

 combine, in their ovra proper pereons, the oftices of 

 inspectors and removers of nuisances. Under any cir- 

 cumstances, the vultiu'cs are certainly imdeservuig of 

 the opprobrium that lias been heaped upon them even 

 by professed naturalists, such as Buffon and his fol- 

 lowers, whose statements have still some influence upon 

 the popular mind. It is true, that if we apply to the 

 characters of animals the moral tests that we employ in 

 'liscriminating those of our fellows, the ^-llltures may be 

 caUed cowardly, lazy, and gluttonous, and the eagles 

 may be magnified into models of courage and noble- 

 ness. But this is harcUy fair, for each of these birds is 

 equally fitted for its peculiar sphere of activity. The 

 vultm-e feeding on carrion, and even preferring this to 

 fresUy-killed meat, is not likely to exhibit much of 

 what is called courage in attacking other animals, and 

 in devouring as much as he can at once, ho is but l^d- 

 filling his uistincts ; and on the other hand, when wo 

 calmly investigate the so-called com'age of the eagle, 

 we tind it hardly so great as is commonly supposed, for 

 scarcely any of the animals that he attacks havej^ 

 least power to defend themselves against his t?^^ 

 talons. 



It has long been a question amongst ornithologists 

 whether the vultures discover their food by the sense 

 of smell or by that of sight ; and the older writers on 

 natural history generally assumed that it was by the 

 former of these senses that the birds received the fii-st 

 indication of the presence of their favourite nourish- 

 ment. Probably they \vere led to tms conclusion rather 

 by the well kno^vn odorous properties of the dehcacies 

 in question than by any other consideration ; and it 

 must be confessed that this solution of the matter 

 seemed perfectly natural. It is now, however, a good 

 many years since some ornithologists ventured to raise 

 a doubt as to the accuracy of tliis view, denying that 

 the vultiures were endowed with the sense of smell in 

 a svifficiently high degree jto accomit for their percep- 

 tion of caxtion at a distance, and wgmg the claims of 

 the sense of sight to the honour of guiduig these bails 

 to then- food. The controversy was carried on witli a 

 vehemence which soon left the ordinarj- amenities, sup- 

 posed to prevail amongst philosophers, at a distance; 

 and it seems now to be established, in opposition to die 

 older writers, that it is really by the sense of sight, at 

 all events in part, that the ^tdtiues discover their food. 

 Thus it has been found, that when the body of an 

 animal, even in an advanced stage of pntriditj-, is con- 

 cealed by a covering of any kind, the vidtm'es do not 

 come near it ; but as soon as the covering is removed, 

 they descend upon tlie carcass and speedily devour it. 

 It is also said that a carcass may lie untouched in a 

 similar maimer under the trees of the forest, although 

 the \T.iltures may frequently sail over the spot ; whilst 

 the same object coidd scarcely lie for a few minutes in 

 the open country without being surromidcd by numerous 

 devourers. These facts seem to show uidubitably, that 

 it is to acuteness of vision that the vultures are usually 

 indebted for earliest intelUgence of a feast in prospect. 



Amongst the vifltnres, as in the monkeys, we find 

 that the members of the family inliabiting the two 

 hemispheres are distinguished by certain pecidiarities 

 coinciding with their geographical distribution. One of 

 the most important of these consists ui the structure of 

 the nostrils, which, in the species uduibiting the Old 

 World, are separated by a partition, so that they appear 

 as mere holes pierced in the cere on the sides of the 

 beak ; whilst in the American species the partition is 

 wanting, and the nostrils form an opening from one 

 side of the beak to the other. 



THE AKABIAU VUITUKE (^Vultui- momchus) — 

 Plate 1, fig. 1 — is not, as might be supposed from its 

 name, peculiar to the peninsula of Ai'abia ; its rango 

 extends over the whole of Northern Africa, and it also 

 occure in Persia, India, and several parts of the south 

 of Emrope, especially in mountamous lUstricts, such as 

 the Pyrenees, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Hungary, Italy, 

 and Spaui. In the Pyrenees it is known by the name 

 of the Aiiian. We have mentioned it first from its being 

 the tj-pe of the genus Vuttw, as restricted by modern 

 authors, distingtiished by havhig the nostrils round, and 

 the head or neck more or less covered with a short 

 down. The Arabian Vulture is a largo species, mea- 

 suring a^liftt four feel in height. The general colom- 

 of its phmiiigo is a blackisli-brown, but sometimes witli 

 an intermixture of tawuy ; the head is covered with >', 



