548 ZOOLOGY. 
zophaps) solitarius Schlegel, inhabited the island of Ro- 
ariguez, 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 Columbe. 
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 gryphus), which has great powers 
of flight, its wings expanding nearly three metres (nine 
feet). 
The carrion crow and turkey buzzard (Cathartes atratus 
and C. aura Illig.) are useful as scavengers, especially the 
former, which is vartly domesticated in southern cities and 
towns ; they nest on the ground or in stumps, and are more 
or less social. The hald-headed eagle (Haliaétus leucocepha- 
lus) is dark-brown when young, and Lefore 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 
haliaétus) is two-thirds of a metre long, nests in tall trees, 
and is migratory. 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 kill 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 
