2 VULTURIDA. 
Vultur fulvus,  Fulvous Vulture, HAaryry, Fauna of Cork, p. 4. 
af ss Griffon Vulture, THompson, Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. xv. 
art. 31. 
Vuttur. Generic Characters. — Beak strong, thick and deep, base covered 
with acere ; upper mandible straight until it reaches the point, where it is hooked 
abruptly ; under mandible straight, rounded, and becoming narrower towards the 
point. Head naked or covered with short down. WNostrils naked and pierced 
diagonally in the cere. Feet very strong, furnished with claws slightly hooked ; 
the middle toe very long, and united at the base to the external toe. Wings 
long ; the first quill-feather short, the fourth the longest. 
Tue Bririsu Birps in this History will be divided into 
five principal orders, in accordance with the views of mo- 
dern systematic Ornithologists, more particularly those of 
this country. The first of these orders, the Raprorss, or 
Birds of Prey, as they are usually called, includes three 
families,—the Vultures, the Falcons, and the Owls; and 
although the Vultures are commonly confined to the 
more tropical countries of the Old and of the New World, 
the capture of two examples of different species, one in 
Ireland, and the other in England, entitle them to a notice 
in this work. 
Vultures are most numerous in warm countries, where 
a high degree of temperature induces rapid decomposition. 
Their food is chiefly animal substance in a decaying state, 
and their business in nature, as observed by Mr. Vigors, 
is to clear away with rapidity those putrifying remains 
which, if allowed to accumulate, might produce pestilence 
and death. The same services rendered to man by nu- 
merous Storks in the cities of India, and by troops of 
dogs in Constantinople, are performed on a much more ex- 
tended scale by Vultures. So valuable are these services, 
that Vultures are almost universally protected from mo- 
lestation or injury either by local legislation or by com- 
mon consent. Great powers of smell have been attribu- 
ted to them; and it appears certain that they possess also 
