170 BEAKS OF 



unbroken curve from the tip of the beak to the pos- 

 terior part of the skull, the vultures have a depression 

 at the base of the bill, and another in the middle in 

 some of the species. The bill is also much longer 

 and also v\'ider in proportion to its height, and the 

 cutting edges of the tomia are in all the species 

 nearly, and in some of them completely plain ; it is 

 also v^-ithout the sliding action at the points of the man- 

 dibles. Thus it can grasp a larger portion of sub- 

 stance than the beak of the falcon ; but it can separate 

 that only by simple pressure of the mandibles against 

 each other ; and, independently of its being without 

 the sliding or tearing motions, the mandibles are nei- 

 ther so stiff for pressure nor moved by such powerful 

 muscles as those of the other diurnal birds of prey. 



From their mode of feeding, and the substances on 

 which they feed, vultures do not gain from the velo- 

 city of the points of their long mandibles that which 

 they lose in power from the diminished strength. In 

 birds, and in animals generally which snap, the velo- 

 city makes up for the loss of power ; and though the 

 greyhound cannot hold fast like the bull-dog, his 

 momentary bite is sharper. It is the same with many 

 of the long-billed birds ; but the vultures are gnawers 

 and not snappers ; and the}' are not so able to divide 

 recent flesh as the other diurnal accipitres. There- 

 fore, their chief food is carrion, or the bodies of ani- 

 mals which have become tender by the progress of 

 putrefaction. 



The annexed sketch of the beak of the vulture may 

 be regarded as the opposite extreme in the diurnal 

 accipitres to that of the jer-falcon already given. But 

 the vultures do not lead by a natural gradation from 

 the more typical diurnal preyers to the nocturnal 

 ones. They point to another portion, or rather to 



