CHAPTER YIII. 



RAPTORES, OR BIRDS OF PREY. 



The Raptores enjoy a greater amount of public notoriety than 

 almost any other birds, although they are of little or no ser- 

 vice to us, and possess infinitely fewer claims to our interest 

 than a multitude of other winged creatures. The audacity and 

 courage by which several species are distinguished, the marvellous 

 stories to which their exploits have given rise, and the supersti- 

 tious terror caused by their appearance may help to explain the 

 reason of their popularity. Poets and novel-writers, in order to 

 characterise their heroes, have often inspired them with the quali- 

 ties or defects of some of the Rapacious birds. They have made 

 the Eagle a type of nobility, strength, and valour ; the Vulture 

 the incarnation of cowardly and unclean cruelty. The Owl, with 

 its staring aspect and noiseless flight, has become with them a 

 bird of ill omen; its doleful hoot echoing through the shades 

 of night, over the house of sickness, is an infallible prediction of 

 death. These superstitions have had considerable influence upon 

 popular imagination, and have thus passed into habitual use in 

 conversation. 



The Rapacious order is characterised by a very strong, hooked, 

 and sharp-edged biU, which is furnished at its base with a mem- 

 brane called the cere — it is generally of a yellow colour, and upon 

 it the nostrils open ; strong legs, covered with feathers ; four toes, 

 three in front and one behind, which are usually very flexible, and 

 provided with crooked and retractile talons, often possessed of con- 

 siderable strength. Their powers of vision are very great, and they 

 are marvellously organised for flight ; their long and vigorous 

 wings enabling them to hover in the highest regions of the air. 



