OF THE BIRDS OF AFRICA. 



45 



it would again devour what had thus been disgorged, All flesh was 

 alike to its taste, even that of other birds of prey ; and once it even 

 devoured with evident relish the remains of another Griffard which I 

 had dissected. 



While these birds remain perched, they utter shrill and piercing 

 cries, which are heard afar off, mixed every now and then with hoarse, 

 mournful notes. They frequently also utter similar cries when on the 

 wing, and while they are at the same time at so prodigious a height as 

 to be undistinguishable by the eye. 



The Griffard for size may be compared to the Great Eagle (Aquila 

 aurea, Brisson ;) but it differs from it, as I have already remarked, 

 in the dimensions of the legs and claws, and by the greater roundness 

 of the head, while the beak is not so large, and is more slender at the 

 bend. It is characterised, first, by the feathers of the hind head (occi- 

 put), which, being a little longer than the others, form behind a sort 

 of pendulous crest ; secondly, by the tail being square, that is, all the 

 feathers composing it being of the same length. VVe shall always make 

 use of this term hereafter, to express this form of tail. Thirdly, by 

 the legs and feet being covered with feathers from the root (naissance) 

 of the toes ; those of the legs* being short, and not constituting what 

 is commonly understood in falconry by the term culotte. Fourthly, the 

 wings being extended to the extremity of the tail, when the bird is in 

 a state of repose. The female is eight feet seven inches across the 

 wings from tip to tip, and the male only seven feet five inches. Fifthly, 

 the craw being prominent and covered with a fine, white, glossy down; 

 the beak, bluish at its origin, being black at the extremity ; the toes, 

 very scaly, being of a yellowish colour ; the nails approaching to black, 

 and being very much curved, forming nearly perfect semicircles ; of 

 these the hinder one is the largest, the middle one the next in size, then 

 the inner ones, the outer ones on each side being the two smallest. The 

 eye, which is very open, is deep sunk, and is covered by the upper part 

 of the orbit, which projects over it for about three lines. The iris is of 

 a fine and very lively hazel brown colour. I have not observed any 



* The leg of a bird is that part which is generally called the thigh. The foot, 

 consequently, is that which is usually called the leg. I am sorry that I am obliged to 

 conform to the received usage of anatomists, although several naturalists, particularly, 

 Buffon, have applied indiscriminately the words thigh and leg to the very same part in 

 a bird. This is of itself of very little consequence, but it is of consequence that the 

 reader should understand what is meant. — Le Vaillant. 



Our author in this goes upon an analogical comparison of birds with quadrupeds. At 

 table, the word leg is, according to this view, correctly applied in popular conversation. 

 I think the term shank (tarsus) the best for what he calls the foot. — J. R. 



