162 CLASS AVKS. 



the ancient Greek, was adopted by Buffon to distinguish it from 

 all others. The Catalans call it trencalos. 



This vulture, says Aristotle, has all the vices of the eagle, 

 without any of his good qualities. It allows itself to be chased 

 and beaten by ravens ; it is lazy in pursuit, heavy in flight, 

 always clamouring and lamenting, perpetually in search of 

 carrion to allay its sateless hunger. To a vile and ill-propor- 

 tioned form, this bird adds the disgusting attribute of a per- 

 petual flow of humour from the nostrils, and from two other 

 holes in the beak, from which the saliva runs. The crop is 

 prominent, and when on the ground, this vulture, like the rest of 

 the tribe, has the wings pendant and half developed. When it is 

 digesting or sleeping, the neck is drawn in between the shoul- 

 ders, and the head buried in the feathers of the nape. 



The Cinereous Vulture [MonacJius of Linnaeus) is called by 

 some writers the black vulture. Brisson and other authors, 

 who have attributed to this bird feet feathered to the toes, 

 were mistaken, for its tarsi are smooth. This error appears to 

 have arisen from the long feathers of the legs sometimes de- 

 scending sufficiently low to cover the tarsus as far as the toes, 

 as Edwards has well observed in his description of the black 

 crowned vulture. If this was not the reason of it, it arose 

 from naturalists referring to Belon, who imagined that all the 

 vultures were thus provided. It is, however, certain that all 

 the vultures of Europe, with the exception of the vultur aureus, 

 barbarus and barbatus, which have been separated from this 

 genus, have the most considerable part of the tarsus naked, as 

 can be verified at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, 

 where specimens of all are to be seen, either in the menagerie, 

 or in the gallery of stuffed birds. 



The Cinereous Vulture is nearly the size of the fulvous, 

 (sometimes larger,) and has a collar of long, narrow, and 

 bristling feathers ; the naked skin of the head and neck is blue, 

 and garnished with down ; the beak blackish ; the cera, tarsi, 

 and toes are the same colour as the head ; the legs are covered 



