91 
VULTURIDiE. 
As the British Fauna can only lay claim to a 
single species of this family, and that in the cha- 
racter of an extremely rare visitant, we do not 
propose to enter into many introductory remarks. 
The Vulturidae have universally been looked 
upon with a kind of disgust. Ungraceful in form, 
of loose and ill-kept plumage, and except when 
satisfying the cravings of hunger, or during the 
season of incubation, of sluggish and inactive 
manners, they present nothing attractive ; while 
carrion being generally mentioned as their com- 
mon food, associations have been created of the 
most loathsome character. They are not, how- 
ever, without utility, for in the warmer regions 
of the world they consume the animal remains, 
which, without the assistance of these birds, the 
more ignoble carnivorous quadrupeds, and the 
myriads of carcase-eating insects, would soon 
spread pestilence around. In many parts of Spain 
and Southern Europe our British visitant is 
allowed to roam unmolested ; in America the 
species there traverse the towns, and are kept in 
