which, the upper and the lower, are closed, in most of the race-as may be seen in our domestic poultry-by the elevation of the lower one. The owl, the goat-sucker, and a few others, have the power of depressing the upper eyelid. Of these birds, the upper only is furnished with eyelashes generally. The ostrich, secretary vulture, some parrots, and a few other birds, have them on both lids. But the third eyelid, or nictitating membrane, forms the most curious apparatus. When at rest, this, which is a thin, semi-transparent fold of the tunica conjunctiva, lies in the inner corner of the eye, with its lower edge nearly vertical. By the combined action of two muscles which are attached towards the back of the sclerotica, it is capable of being drawn out so as to cover the whole front of the eyeball like a curtain, while its own elasticity restores it to the corner in which it rested. This, it is said, enables the eagle to look at the sun.

The sense of hearing appears to be sufficiently acute in birds, though, with the exception of the night-birds, the owl in particular, they have no external cartilaginous ear; and the peculiar valve, partly muscular and partly membranous, placed at the ordinary opening, even in those birds, has none of the development which generally marks the concha of mammals. The peculiar arrangement of the comparatively loosely-barbed feathers, however, round the aperture* compensates for it; and this arrangement may be well seen in the rapacious birds.

The sense of smelling, highly developed in the majority of birds, was supposed to have reached its highest power in the vultures. But some doubt, as we shall see hereafter, has been cast on this supposition.

Though all birds possess a tongue, it is probable that but few find enjoyment in it as ministering to their taste, and in those few it is thick, soft, and covered with papilla. In general, the tongue is horny and stiff; but, as an organ for taking food, it becomes of the highest importance. The sense of touch, as applied to external objects, must, generally speaking, be very obtuse.

Perhaps the most interesting display of the instinctive affections of birds appears in the education of their offspring. The transition between the repose of the nest and flying is very great; and, even after their escape, the young, yet feeble, are not capable of finding sufficient food. Thus the parental cares are still exerted in teaching their young how to fly; and it is pleasant to watch this course of instruction in the swallow, and others which build high above the ground. He who has the opportunity must be a careless observer of nature who has not witnessed the gradually diminishing dependence of the offspring, after this great change, in the beseechings and the caresses which solicit food, sometimes granted and at others refused, till the link is broken, and the passion implanted for this great purpose ceases to act; when the new animal at length takes its independent place in the great society, to labour, in no long time, and in like manner, for a posterity, as it has been a cause of care and labour to its parents.

Cuvier has placed the Birds of all known regions in Six Orders; and hence, slightly departing from the details of his arrangement, we shall now proceed to consider them as follows :—

No portion of the world is without raptorial animals, and, according to the all-wise constitution established by the Creator, no other system could long exist, except that which operated as a salutary check on the production of, and as balance of power between, all creatures.

The first Family of raptorial birds that demands our consideration is one † whose geographical distribution is confined to warm climates. The genus Vultur, of Linnæus, stands first in his first order Accipitres, and consists of the following species:- V. gryphus; V. harpyja; V. papa; V. monachus; V. aura; V. barbatus; V. percnopterus, and V. albicilla. Cuvier divides the genus

Vultur into the following sub-genera :-Sarcoramphus; Cathartes; Percnopterus; including the Urubu, Vultur Jota of C. Bonaparte, and the Griffons. Other arrangements have also been proposed, into which it is needless to enter; attaching, as we shall do, the assigned technicality to each one of the more remarkable birds of the family, which will be described as popularly as possible. It has often been remarked that the carnivorous animals and rapacious birds are strikingly typified by each other. In the principal forms of each order there are the strongest creatures in existence, and both are generally of a large size. Their dispositions are fierce and daring, and the whole frame is specially adapted to powerful action and swift pursuit. The sight is remarkably acute; and, as we draw out or push in the tube of a telescope, as the distance of the object is greater or smaller, so there is a similar power over the lenses of the eye, that the rapacious bird may discern from its towering height the prey far beneath, and see it with no less distinctness as it descends to the spoil. In some groups, vision is particularly acute by night, and in these the hearing is also delicate. The organs of mastication are fitted for tearing, as may be seen in the powerful canines of some, and the strong and toothed bills of others. The claws are large, curved, sharp, and retractile.

If it be affirmed that the parallels drawn by some naturalists between mammalia and birds are overstrained and visionary, it may be asserted that there are some instances in which they are truly indicated by nature. This analogy is, perhaps, in no instance better established than between the vultures and the hyæna, jackal, or wolf. Alike scavengers of the earth, they remove its offal, and they clear away its dead, which would otherwise corrupt the air with pestilential exhalations.

Far less ferocious, however, are the vultures than the analogous quadrupeds. The latter attack living prey, thirsting for blood, while the former batten on the carcases of the dead, and rarely make the living their victims. Happily for them, they are seldom at a loss for a meal in the countries where they abound. If the unburied slain on the battle-field will attract them in flocks from a great distance, the death of any beast of the field summons an assembly to the banquet. Sailing on wide and ample wings, they sweep from the higher regions of the air to their repast, on which they often gorge themselves until they are unable to rise from the spot. At the impulse of hunger alone the vulture is thus roused from his apathy, to go in quest of his carrion meal. Then, mounting aloft till almost out of sight, he skims in large circles, sustained on outspread but motionless pinions, scanning the surface of the earth.

The vultures are distinguished from other birds of prey by the entire or partial denudation of the head and neck, the latter of which is much elongated. This peculiarity of structure enables them to burrow in the putrid carcases on which they prey, without risk of spoiling their plumage. Other differences are observable, as the lateral position of the nostrils in a generally broad and powerful bill, curved only at its point, and clothed at its base by an extended naked skin, or cere; the nakedness of the tarsi, which are covered only with small, reticulated scales; and the strong, thick talons, somewhat blunted at the points, but little curved, and scarcely, if at all, retractile.

THE CONDOR.*

THE Condor is peculiar to the New World, but it approaches very closely, in its most essential characters, to the vultures of the Old Continent. Like the king vulture, which will next be described, it differs from the latter principally in the large, fleshy, or rather cartilaginous caruncle, which surmounts its beak; in the large size of its oval and longitudinal nostrils, placed almost at the very extremity of the cere, and in the comparative length of its quill feathers, the third being the longest of the series.

Forty years ago, one or two mutilated specimens of this bird formed the only memorials of its existence in the cabinets of Europe, and all the knowledge possessed of it was derived from some settlers but little acquainted with natural history. Vague and erroneous was it, when some repeated without examination whatever stories happened to be current; and others, less scrupulous, or more fanciful, allowed imagination unrestricted to describe the condor. The roc of eastern mythology— the wondrous guardian of immense mountain treasures-was, however, sufficient for their purpose, and so this monstrous bird was said to be equalled, if not surpassed, by this native of the Andes. Garcilasso expressly says, there are some condors in Peru sixteen feet from the point of one wing to that of the other, and that a certain nation of Indians adore them.

Even Buffon exaggerated its size; and Vieillot truly remarks: "It was with the condor as it was with the Patagonians-both shrank before examination." Often nestling on the ridges of rocks which border the lower limit of perpetual snow, and standing forth in solitary majesty, crowned with its extraordinary comb, it appeared to the eyes of Humboldt himself as a winged giant. Precisely contrary, however, was the effect of the grand scenery around on Lieutenant Mann, as he descended into the deep and narrow valley of Magdalena. Several of these birds, he says, hovered around and about the rocks on which they build their nests, but so vast was the scale of these rocks and mountains, that even these immense birds appeared quite insignificant, and he doubted, for a time, that they were condors.

All optical illusions ceased on the actual measurement of this bird. The extent of its wings scarcely exceeds fourteen feet, and even this it appears but rarely to attain. Humboldt in his travels met with no one that went beyond nine feet, and was assured by many credible inhabitants of Quito that they had never shot any that measured more than eleven. The length of one male specimen, somewhat less than nine feet in expanse, was three feet three inches from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail; and its height, when perching, with the neck partly withdrawn, two feet eight inches. Its beak was two inches and three quarters in length, and an inch and a quarter in depth, when closed.

* Sarcoramphus gryphus: Duméril.

The beak of the condor is straight at the base, but the upper mandible becomes arched towards the point, and terminates in a strong and well-curved hook. The basal half is of an ash-brown, and the remaining portion towards the point is nearly white. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and covered with a hard, wrinkled, dusky-reddish skin, on which are scattered some short brown or blackish hairs. On the top of the head, which is much flattened above, extending some distance along the beak, is attached an oblong, firm caruncle, or comb, covered by a continuation of the skin which invests the head. This organ is peculiar to the male. It is connected with the beak only in its anterior parts, and is separated from it at the base in such a manner as to allow of a free

passage of the air to the large, oval nostrils, which are situated beneath it at that part. Behind the eyes, which are somewhat elongated, and not sunk beneath the general surface of the head, the skin of the neck is, as it were, gathered into a series of descending folds, extending obliquely from the back of the head, over the temples, to the under side of the neck, and there connected entirely with a lax membrane, or wattle, capable of being dilated at pleasure, like that of the common turkey. The neck is marked by numerous deep parallel folds, produced by the habit of retracting the head, in which the bird indulges when at rest. In this position scarcely any part of the neck is visible.

On the lower part of the neck, the female, as well as the male, is provided with a broad white ruff of downy feathers, which forms the line of separation between the naked skin above and the true

VOL. III.

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feathers covering the body below it. All the other feathers, with the exception of the wing coverts, and the secondary quill-feathers, are of a bright black, generally mingled with a grayish tinge, of greater or less intensity. In the female, the wing coverts are blackish-gray; but the male has their points, and, frequently, as much as half their length, white. The wings of the latter are consequently distinguished from those of the female by their large white patches. The secondary quill-feathers of both sexes are white on the outer side. Ulloa asserted that, in the colder parts of Peru, the skin is so closely covered with feathers, that eight or ten balls may be heard to strike it without penetrating

its body. The tail is short and wedge-shaped. The legs are excessively thick and powerful, and are coloured of a blueishgray, intermingled with whitish streaks. Their elongated toes are united at the base by a loose but very apparent membrane, and are terminated by long black talons of considerable thickness, but very little curved. The hinder toe is much shorter than the rest, and its talon, although more distinctly curved, is equally wanting in strength-a deficiency which renders the foot much less powerful, as an organ of prehension, than that of any other of the large birds of the raptorial order.

The immense mountain chain of the Andes, which runs down the continent of South America, is the native stronghold, where these birds dwell securely; in Peru and Chili they are even abundant, but more than three or four are seldom seen together. There, in the regions of perpetual snow, and of terrific storms, 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, on some isolated pinnacle or crag, the condor rears its brood, and looks down on the plains beneath, yet far away, for food, from the towering elevations, which, with their declivities and valleys, cover about a sixth part of that continent. We have learned much respecting it from Humboldt, and his fellow-traveller, Bonpland; for whenever they reached, in their botanical excursions, the limits of perpetual snow, three or four condors always appeared on the points of the rocks, showing no distrust, suffering themselves to be approached to within a short distance, and seeming indisposed to make an attack. Though here these birds find their home, they build no nest, but deposit their eggs on the naked rocks, without surrounding them even with straw or leaves. The eggs are white, and from three to four inches in length. The female remains with her offspring for the space of an entire year.

Of all birds, the condor mounts highest into the atmosphere. Humboldt describes the flight of it in the Andes to be at least 20,000 feet above the level of the sea. From the cave of Antisana, elevated 12,958 feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean, he saw this bird soaring at a perpendicular height of 6,876 feet. He says it is a remarkable circumstance, that this bird, which continues to fly about in regions where the air is so rarefied, descends all at once to the edge of the sea, and thus, in a few minutes, passes through all the variations of climate. At a height of 20,000 feet, the air-cells of the condor, which are filled in the lowest regions, must be inflated in an extraordinary manner.

Many years ago, Ulloa expressed his astonishment that this bird could fly at a height where the mean pressure of the air is only fourteen inches. It was then imagined, from experiments made with the air-pump, that no animal could live in so rare a medium; but Humboldt has seen the barometer on Chimborazo fall to thirteen inches eleven lines; and Gay Lussac respired for a quarter of an hour in an atmosphere whose pressure was even less than this. At these heights, man generally finds himself reduced to a painful state of debility, while the condor, on the contrary, appears to breathe freely. Of all living beings, it appears to be the one that can rise, at will, to the greatest distance from the earth's surface,

When driven by hunger, the condor descends into the plains, but leaves them as soon as its appetite is satiated, as if the increased weight of the atmosphere, and the warmer temperature there, soon became oppressive. It prefers resting on the ground, for which its comparatively straight talons are peculiarly fitted, to perching on trees. Like the rest of its family, it subsists on carrion, and so gorges