408 CONDOR. 
The young birds have their head entirely covered with down, 
which gradually falls off as they advance in age. ‘The female 
is larger than the male: their plumage varies greatly with age, 
and they moult but once a year. The young are easily dis- 
tinguished by their downy head and neck, these parts in the 
adult being naked, and by the absence of the caruncles which 
in some species are found on the adult. These fleshy appen- 
dages are of the same nature as the wattles, &., of gallina- 
ceous birds. 
No part of ornithology has been more confused in its details 
than that relative to the vultures, and their synonymy, espe- 
cially the Huropean species, is almost inextricable: the old 
authors have heedlessly multiplied and even composed species, 
whilst the modern have brought together the most confused 
citations under those which at last they founded on the actual 
observation of nature. We congratulate ourselves that the 
task of pointing out all these errors, from which no writer 
without exception appears free, does not belong to us. 
Vile, gluttonous, and pre-eminently unclean, the Vulturide 
are the only birds of prey that keep together in flocks all the 
year round: as cowardly as they are indiscriminately voracious, 
they are too pusillanimous, notwithstanding their numbers, to 
attack living prey, and content themselves with the abundant 
supply of food which is offered by the putrid carcasses of dead 
animals. In fact, they appear to give the preference to these, 
with all their disgusting concomitants, and only resort to 
freshly slaughtered animals when impelled by extreme 
hunger. Their want of courage is denoted by their crouch- 
ing attitude and the humility of their demeanour. Creatures 
with such dispositions did not require from Nature strength 
or powerful weapons; nothing was needed but perfection of 
smelling, that they might from a distance discover their 
appropriate food, and this faculty they possess in an eminent 
degree. ‘Their nostrils have two large external apertures, and 
an extensive olfactory membrane within. 
Though regarded with disgust for their filthy habits, these 

