996 ZOOLOGY. 
the Vultures are directed to a wise end. They are the scavengers of the hot > 
parts of the earth, performing valuable services in destroying dead animals 
immediately after life has ceased, in countries where large quadrupeds and all 
animals most abound. | 
It was long believed that Vultures were attracted to decaying matter by 
a very exquisite power of scent, which was supposed to enable them to distin- 
guish it at a great distance. The testimony of modern naturalists, especially 
Le Vaillant and Audubon, has completely disproved this opinon. The former 
found it impossible to protect animals which he had killed, except by covering 
them, which he sometimes did, with branches and leaves of trees, and found 
that they were no more interfered with. Audubon made several careful and 
conclusive experiments to the same purpose. It would, however, perhaps ~ 
be venturing too much to assert that birds of this family have not the sense of 
smell in rather an unusual degree, since a well developed olfactory apparatus 
has been satisfactorily demonstrated. We may safely conclude though, 
that in cases where Vultures are seen to converge from various directions in 
the atmosphere towards a recently dead animal, they are guided exclusively 
by their piercing vision. 
Of all families of birds the Vultures sustain the most lofty flight. Thus 
the traveller in the highest ranges of the Andes often sees the Condor, the 
largest of Vultures, soaring yet far above him, a mere speck in the heavens. 
For this purpose they are well fitted by the lightness of their bones, which 
in some species are hollow throughout, even to the toes. The common Turkey 
buzzard (Cathartes aura) has a skeleton so light as to weigh little over four 
ounces. 
Except in the capacity of scavengers the Vultures are of little economi- 
cal importance. Nothing but the most direct and pressing necessity would 
cause their rank flesh to be eaten, and their feathers are not useful. They 
occur in all torrid and temperate regions, very abundant in the former and 
frequently met with in the latter, rarely passing beyond the limits of the tem- 
perate zone. 
Sub-fam. 1. Vulturine, or true Vultures. Bill strong and somewhat 
elongated, more or less compressed, the basal half covered with a cere; 
upper mandible abruptly hooked; nostrils generally placed transversely in 
the cere and exposed; wings long; tarsi covered with small scales. Head 
naked, with the skin generally wrinkled and with scattering hairs; neck 
partially naked. 
The true or typical Vultures are restricted to the old world, and are 
found in great numbers (though of few species) in the warmer parts of 
Asia and in Africa, while in Europe one species only occurs sparingly. 
Nearly all the species are large birds, and they perform the same offices of 
scavengers as their relatives, the Turkey buzzards and Carrion crows, do 
in America, in which capacity they are of great importance in the densely 
populated Asiatic cities, and, in fact, in all tropical countries. This sub- 
family presents in the highest degree the general characters of the Vulture 
family, the naked head, neck, and tarsi, by which they are better enabled 
to partake of their putrescent food than if those parts were clothed with 
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