54:8 ZOOLOGY. 



zophaps) solitarius Schlegel, inhabited the island of Ro- 

 driguez, having been exterminated about the same date 

 (1681). These were clumsy, defenceless birds, incapable of 

 flight, and were destroyed by the domestic animals which 

 accompanied the Portuguese voyagers to the Mascarene 

 Islands. The doves and their allies now commonly form a 

 group, called Columbm. 



The birds of prey {Raptores), comprising the vultures, 

 buzzards, falcons, hawks, eagles, and nocturnal owls, have 

 a hooked and cered beak — i.e., with a waxy, dense mem- 

 brane situated at the base of the upper mandible. The 

 claws are large and sharp. The raptorial birds live either on 

 birds and mammals, or fish, reptiles, batrachians, and insects. 

 Of the vultures, the most notable for size is the condor of 

 the Andes (Sarcorhampus gryphits), which has great powers 

 of flight, its wings expanding nearly three metres (nine 

 feet). 



The carrion crow and turkey buzzard (Cafhartes atraius 

 and C. aura lUig.) are useful as scavengers, especially the 

 former, which is partly domesticated in southern cities and 

 towns ; they nest on the ground or va. stumps, and are more 

 or less social. The bald-headed eagle {HaUaitus leucocepha- 

 lus) is daxk-brown when young, and lef;re shedding its 

 youthful plumage is larger than the white-headed adult. It 

 nests on inaccessible rocky points ; is the sworn enemy of 

 the fish-hawk, and, like it, fond of fish, often wresting its 

 living food from the talons of, the hawk. This species is the 

 emblem of our country. The osprey or fish -hawk {Pandion 

 haliaitus) is two-thirds of a metre long, nests in tall trees, 

 and is migratoiy. Among the hawks, the most notable are 

 the falcons or hunting hawks, used during the Middle Ages 

 in hunting the hare, etc. ; in nature they chase their prey 

 and kiU it immediately, devouring it, and rejecting the 

 bones and hair of the partly digested food in a ball from the 

 mouth. 



The owl is a bird of the night ; its flight is noiseless, ow- 

 ing to its soft plumage, the feathers having no after-shaft. 

 It has large eyes and a hooked bill, giving the bird of Mi- 

 nerva an air of consummate wisdom. Owls capture living 



