VULTURES. 
33 
third ; she alone hatches the brood, and probably, finds 
the occasional necessity of defending them from her un- 
feeling mate. 
This order of birds are well distinguished by their short, 
robust bill, compressed at its sides, and curved towards 
its extremity ; the upper mandible is also covered at its 
base by a particular coating called the cere . The nos- 
trils are open. The feet strong, short, or of middling 
length, feathered to the knees, or sometimes down to the 
toes. The toes are three before, and one behind, all 
equally touching the ground, and wholly divided, or 
united at the base by a membrane ; the sole is rough, to 
assist in holding the animals on which they feed, and 
more remarkably so in those which live on fish, and re- 
quire this additional aid to retain their slippery prey. 
The toes are armed with powerful, sharp, retractile, and 
curved nails. 
VULTURES. 
These are ignoble, cowardly, and gregarious birds, generally con- 
fined to mild or warm climates, where, feeding on unburied carcases 
and filth, they render an important service to man, and in the South- 
ern parts of the United States they are consequently protected from 
destruction by law. They sometimes also prey upon small living 
animals, reptiles, and the eggs of birds. They are exceedingly indo- 
lent, and in their mean and disgusting figure, slovenly attitude, 
foetid scent, and heavy gait, they are strikingly distinguished from 
those birds of rapine which give a preference to living animals, and 
seize their prey by stratagem or strength. In the conformation of 
their feet and claws, they are destitute of that powerful armature 
which is peculiar to the other rapacious birds ; they are unable to 
make use of these members either in attacking or conveying their 
prey, which must consequently be consumed on the spot. Their 
head and neck wholly naked, or partially clothed with a woolly 
down, is small compared with the size of the body, and the lat- 
ter is frequently long and slender. Although their flight is slow, 
