326 
CONFORMATION AND HABITS OF VULTURES. 
6 July, 
claws so sharp, or with nails so much curved as theirs ; though here it 
may perhaps be said that their mode of life, in standing on the ground 
while feeding, wears off the points of these. Yet this is not less the 
result of Divine decree ; for the different species of the feline genus * 
have excessively sharp nails, notwithstanding their walking on the 
ground ; and for the preservation of their points, so essential to their 
mode of seizing their prey, Nature has given them an admirable and 
peculiar power of drawing them back. The head and neck of vul- 
tures could not have been, like other birds, covered with feathers, 
because these, not being in the reach of their beak, could not have 
been easily kept clean, and would soon have become clotted together 
by the blood or dirt of the carcasses on which they fed. These parts 
are, therefore, either quite bare, or clothed only with a short woolly 
or downy covering. Their wings are long and large ; and their bones, 
though thick, are remarkably light, a conformation which enables 
them to sustain their bodies for so great a length of time, in the 
highest regions of the atmosphere. Their beak is strong and hooked ; 
and remarkably well formed for tearing out entrails, or dividing 
putrid flesh. Their own flesh smells strongly like carrion, and no 
other animal, however pressed by hunger, will eat it ; a quality of 
importance to their preservation : for, were it eatable, they would be 
exposed to destruction while in the exercise of their duty, which often 
obliges them to feed in company with hyenas, and other beasts of prey 
which occasionally satisfy their hunger by a dead carcass. But so 
nicely is the mutual relation of all things balanced, that none of these 
animals, nor the domestic dog, show the least inclination to take away 
the life of these birds. For this reason they are, in every country, it 
would seem, tolerated by man, and sometimes treated even with 
respect. They have an extent of privilege, which their associates 
the hyenas have not ; because they never harm the living. 
* I may be allowed here to make the remark, although it belong properly to a part 
of the journal not comprised in the present volume, that the South-African animal called 
Luipard (Leopard) by the Dutch colonists, and 'NJcwi and Nkwdni (Inkwani) by the 
Bachapins, and supposed to be the Felis juhata, has not the sharp retractile claws which 
distinguish the feline genus. 
