350 BLACK VULTURE OR CARRION CROW. 



analogue of the supei'ior turbinated bone of the Turkey Buzzard. The 

 cavity of the nose measures exactly 1 inch in its greatest length, from 

 the posterior part of the arch at c to the nostril e, which is narrower 

 than that of the Turkey Buzzard. The turbinated bone is entirely 

 membranous, and forms two convolutions. The anterior extremity of 

 the cerebral hemisphere runs out into a point a, and gradually con- 

 tracting constitutes the olfactory nerve, which may be said to be from 

 2 twelfths to half a twelfth in height, and of the same breadth, ac- 

 cording to the part at which it is measiu-ed. It enters the nasal cavity 

 near c, and is distributed over its membrane. The large branch of the 

 fifth pair 6, follows the same course as in the Turkey Buzzard, and is of 

 the same size, that is, has a diameter of one-third of a twelfth of an inch. 

 Now, here are two birds, the Turkey Buzzard, and the Carrion Crow, 

 so called, both Vultures, and of very similar habits, both feeding on flesh 

 and on all sorts of matter, fresh or putrid, dead or alive ; the one smell- 

 ing, or not smelling, precisely like the other, in so far as can be judged 

 from appearances. Yet one has its rather muscular stomach lined with 

 a thick strongly ridged epithelium of more than a twelfth of an inch thick, 

 while the other has a stomach of which the walls are as thin as those of an 

 Owl, and having no internal cuticle. One has a nasal cavity furnished 

 with two turbinated bones and a wide aperture, while the other has only a 

 single turbinated bone in its nasal cavity, of which the anterior aper- 

 ture is comparatively narrow. In other respects, however, the birds 

 are alike ; they have a broad induplicate, marginally denticulate tongue. 

 Why it should be so is not apparent, but doubtless there is a reason. 

 They who profess to know about Vultures may perhaps inform us. They 

 have both a most enormous crop ; wide intestines of moderate length ; 

 and both are destitute of coeca. We know that birds which feed on 

 flesh, which is very nutritious, have the coeca of the minimum size, and 

 that those which feed on grass and twigs, which are not so easily assi- 

 milated, have them extremely large : but if the smallness of the coeca be 

 in relation to the excellence of the food, why should the garbage-eating 

 Vultures have no coeca, when the pure-feeding Falcons have, small 

 though they be '^ There is enough in these and other subjects relative 

 to Vultures, to occupy philosophers for some time to come ; so that they 

 need not be at a loss for better employment than vituperating those who 

 have endeavoured by observation and experiment to elicit truth. 



