﻿280 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



trary is the fact. This inequality of .size, and difference 

 of colour, in the sexes, renders it very difficult to de- 

 termine the species ; and this difficulty is increased by 

 the length of time required for the young birds to as- 

 sume their adult plumage, which is often totally different 

 from that which they at first put on. Rapacious birds 

 are immediately recognised by their strong hooked bill, 

 and formidably acute talons : by these instruments of 

 rapine they are enabled to despatch and prey upon ani- 

 mals little inferior in size to themselves. In these attacks 

 the victim is first struck by the talons, or by the feet, 

 the muscles of which indicate extraordinary strength. 

 The prey once secured, the bill is then used, as a knife, 

 to separate or tear the parts asunder : for this purpose 

 there is placed a strong and sharp tooth in one or both 

 mandibles, which materially assists the operation. In 

 such tribes as feed upon carrion, or small animals, this 

 tooth, being no longer essential, is either obsolete or 

 entirely wanting. It is thus that nature preserves, in 

 this order, a strong analogy to the carnivorous quadru- 

 peds. The slothful vulture and the cowardly hyena 

 glut themselves upon carrion ; the bold and majestic 

 lions, like the noble falcons, feast upon no other prey 

 than what their own courage has procured ; while the 

 owls and the stoats prowl during the night after the 

 same feeble and ignoble game. 



(232.) The order before us is composed of only three 

 families that are now in existence, whose prominent 

 features are, perhaps, more decided than those of any 

 other groups in ornithology : the vultures, the falcons, 

 and the owls are so strongly marked as to be familiar to 

 every one. It has been customary with some system- 

 atists to divide this order into two groups, from the 

 period of their feeding ; the two former being diurnal, 

 and the latter nocturnal : but this explains little. A 

 much clearer, and certainly a more correct, idea will be 

 formed of their true nature, by considering them with 

 reference to their attributes, and their natural affinities. 



(233.) Commencing with the Vulturid^:, or Vul- 



