164 
AVES. 
(fig. 72, a) is semicircular and very wide, the better to resist the violent pressure of the humerus 
incidental to a rapid flight. [The young undergo no change of feather until their second 
autumn ; and they renew their plumage slowly, and in no 
instance more than once in the year ; its seasonal change 
being confined to a slight wearing otF, rather than a natural 
shedding, of the margins of the feathers : in several species, 
however, the colour indicative of maturity is partially ac- 
quired, previously to moulting, by a change of hue in the first 
or nestling plumage. The eggs of Accipitrine Birds are 
nearly spherical ; and those of the present division are gene- 
rally more or less spotted or blotched with rusty-brown. 
The young are at first densely clad in short soft down.] 
Linnaeus made only two genera, which are two natural 
divisions, — the Vultures and the Falcons. 
The Vultures (Vuliur, Lin.) — 
Have the eyes even with the head ; the tarsi reticulated, or, in 
other words, covered with small scales ; the beak lengthened, 
curved only at the end ; and a greater or less portion of the head, 
and generally of the neck, [in the adult,] devoid of feathers. The 
force of their talons does not correspond with their stature, and 
they make more use of their beak than of their claws. Their 
wings are so long, that in walking they hold them half-extended. 
They are of a cowardly disposition, and feed on carrion oftener 
than on living prey : when they have gorged themselves, their 
craw forms a large protuberance above the fourchette, a fetid 
humour issues from their nostrils, and they are almost reduced 
Fig./l.^AlimentaryCanal of the Common Buzzard : 
exhibiting the first expansion, or craw ; and (be- to a statc of apatliv. [They difier, moreover, from all the suc- 
low the divarication of the trachea) the proven- jt u 
tricuius, stomach, and intestines. The second ceedinff groups, till wc arrivc at the Poultry, — with the sole ex- 
figure represents the termination of the small £3 o r ' ’ 
ioJm .^e cio'lSa'i!^" tw^ndn^irilL"^ L°t ^eption of the Secretary genus {Gypogeranm), which indeed might 
the junction of the great and small intestines.* ranged with them,— in posscssing more than twelve cervical ver- 
tebrae f; their fourchette, though extremely stout and wide, 
is flattened as in the Owls ; the sternal crest low, and reduced 
anteriorly ; and the posterior edge of the sternum (fig. 73), in 
some of those of America, is doubly emarginated for some 
time : they even further accord with the Owls in having a rib 
less than the Falconine genera. 
The Vultures, properly so called, {Vultur, Cuv.) — 
Have a large and strong beak, the nostrils opening cross-wise 
its base, the head and neck without feathers or caruncles, and 
collar of long feathers, or of down, at the base of the neck. 
They have hitherto been found only on the old continent [but 
none of the tribe are met with in Australia, where the absence 
of larger indigenous quadrupeds than the Kangaroos, and of 
predatory animals that should leave the surplus of their 
meals to putrefy, indicate that they could not be sup- 
ported.] t 
of the Common Harrier. 
ig. 7^.— Sternal apparatus 
N.B. The keel (h) i.s rather more developed in the ■ 
Falcons ; less so in the Eagles. 
* Copied from M'GillivTay’s Rapacio7ts Birds oj Britain.— 'R-a. 
t In the long series of groups adverted to, the thirteenth vertebra 
generally, but not always, bears a pair of minute ribs, which diminish 
till they disappear in some species j if, therefore, the thirteenth 
vertebra is to be considered as cervical in such cases, as not bearing 
a rib, the difference is essentially trifling, and does not intrinsically 
affect the above generalization — Ed. 
t The Alectura, Gray, which has been ignorantly classified with the i) 
Vultures, is in every respect a true Poultry bird. 
