AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



1S7. 



the crop, where the naked skin has a bluish tinge. A broad 

 rufl' of pure white feathers surrounds the lower part of the 

 neck; and the rest of the plumage, in the adult bird, is of a 

 grayish brown, with the exception of the quill-feathers of 

 the wings and tail, which are of a dusky black. The under 

 parts are somewhat lighter than the upper; the bill is of a 

 livid colour with a tinge of blue; the iris of a bright orange; 

 and the legs and feet grayish brown, the feathers of the in- 

 side of their upper part being pure white. In the female 

 the colours apjoear to coincide exactly with those of the 

 male; but the young birds are at first of a bright fawn, which 

 is variegated, after thefirst and second changes of plumage, 

 with patches of gray, and changes to the perfectly adult hue 

 only after the close of the third year. 



This noble species of Vulture, which is one of the largest 

 birds of prey of the Old Continent, measuring from three 

 feet and a half to four feet in length, and more than twice as 

 much in the expanse of its wings, is found on the lofty 

 mountain chains of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is not un- 

 common during the summer in the Alps and Pyrenees, but 

 is said to retreat in winter to the north of Africa, extendina: 

 itself, according to Le Vaillant, to the Cape of Good Hope. 

 M. Risso, however, informs us that it is stationary on the 

 Alps in the vicinity of Nice. The Rock of Gibraltar, the 

 Mountains of Silesia and the Tyrol, Greece and Turkey, 

 are also spoken of as its European habitats; Egypt is indi- 

 cated by Savigny ; the Mountains of Ghilan in the north of 

 Persia by Hablizl; and other localities still farther east are 

 given by other writers. 



The nest of the Grifibn Vulture is formed in the clefts of 

 rocks. It lays from two to four eggs, which are of a grayish 

 white, with numerous spots of a very light and diluted red. 

 Like all the other birds of its tribe it feeds principally upon 

 dead carcasses, to which it is frequently attracted in very 

 considerable numbers. When it has once made a lodgment 

 upon its prey, it rarely quits the banquet while a morsel of 

 flesh remains, so that it is not uncommon to see it perched 

 upon a putrefying corpse for several successive days. It 

 never attempts to carry off a portion, even to satisfy its 

 young, but feeds them by disgorging thehalf-digested mor- 

 sel from its maw. Sometimes, but very rarely, it makes 

 its prey of living victims; and even then of such only as 

 are incapable of offering the smallest resistance; for in a 

 contest for superiority it has not that advantage which is 

 possessed by the Falcon tribes, of lacerating its enemy with 

 its talons, and must therefore rely upon the force of its beak 

 alone. It is only, however, when no other mode of satiat- 

 ing its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the 

 destruction of other animals for its subsistence. 



After feeding it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried 

 posture, patiently waiting until the work of digestion is 



completed and the stimulus of hunger is renewed, to enable 

 and to urge it to mount again into the upper regions of the 

 air and fly abroad in questof itsnecessaryfood. If violently 

 disturbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it 

 has disgorged the contents of its stomach, lightened of 

 which, and freed from their debilitating effects, it is imme- 

 diately in a condition to soar to such a pitch as, in spite of 

 its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight. 



In captivity it appears to have no other desire than that of 

 obtaining its regular supply of food. So long as that is 

 afforded it, it manifests aperfect indifference to the circum- 

 stances in which it is placed. An individual has been for 

 three years an inhabitant of the Garden, and was for many 

 years previous in the possession of Joshua Brookes, Esq., by 

 whom it was presented to the Society. — Toiver Menagerie. 



THE CHINCHILLA. 



Chinchilla Lanigera, 



The peculiar softness and beauty of the fur of the Chin- 

 chilla have been so long, so ornamentally, and so comfort- 

 ably known to our fair countrywomen, that it would be 

 paying their taste and curiosity a sorry compliment to ima- 

 gme that they have no desire to become acquainted with the 

 animal by which it is furnished. We are happy therefore to 

 have it in our power to gratify them, as well as the sci- 

 entific zoologist, by a figure and description of so inter- 

 esting a creature, the former the only one that has yet been 

 given to the world, and the latter the first that has appeared 

 in our lang-uage. 



Notwithstanding the extensive trade carried on in its 

 skins, the Chinchilla might have been regarded until the 

 last year almost as an unknown animal: for no modern 

 naturalist, with the exception of the Abbe Molina, a native 

 of Chili, who has written expressly on the Natural History 

 of that country, had seen an entire specimen, livingordead; 

 and the description given in his work added little of truth 

 and much of error to the information that was to be derived 

 from an inspection of the skins themselves in the imperfect 

 state in which they are sent into the market. Still his ac- 

 count contains many particulars relative to the habits of the 

 animal, which are not to be met with elsewhere, and we 

 shall therefore extract it entire; first, however, referrino-to 

 suchscanty notices in the works of former writers as appear 

 to have been founded on original observation. 



The earliest account of the Chinchilla with which wo 

 have met is contained in Father Joseph Acosta's Natural 

 and Moral History of the East and West Indies, published 



