. The natural history of birds . are not so able to dividerecent flesh as the other diurnal accipitres. There-fore, their chief food is carrion, or the bodies of ani-mals which have become tender by the progress ofputrefaction. The annexed sketch of the beak of the vulture maybe regarded as the opposite extreme in the diurnalaccipitres to that of the jer-falcon already given. Butthe vultures do not lead by a natural gradation fromthe more typical diurnal preyers to the nocturnalones. They point to another portion, or rather to VULTURES. 171 two other portions of the class. In the forms of thei
. The natural history of birds . are not so able to dividerecent flesh as the other diurnal accipitres. There-fore, their chief food is carrion, or the bodies of ani-mals which have become tender by the progress ofputrefaction. The annexed sketch of the beak of the vulture maybe regarded as the opposite extreme in the diurnalaccipitres to that of the jer-falcon already given. Butthe vultures do not lead by a natural gradation fromthe more typical diurnal preyers to the nocturnalones. They point to another portion, or rather to VULTURES. 171 two other portions of the class. In the forms of theirbills they have some approximation both to certainspecies of the gallinaceous birds, and to certain tribesof that division of Cuviers great order, Passeres,which, for want of a better name, we shall call om-nivorous ; and it is not a little remarkable that, likethe gallinaceous birds, they have naked skin uponthe head and neck, and that skin blooms in the seasonas in The nocturnal birds of prey have the bill moreslender than the day-feeders, generally much hookedfrom the base, compressed, sharp at the tips of bothmandibles, smooth in the outlines of the tomia, andwithout tooth or notch. It takes up the connexionvsith the bills of the diurnal feeders rather from oneof the characters of that of the kites, than from thoseof the vultures, which, in their general structure, may 172 BEAKS OF OWLS. be considered as the lowest in the diurnal division;and this might be expected, as the nocturnal feeders—the owls—are not feeders on carrion, but in generalkill their own game, chiefly mice, and other smallmammalia, which have been mentioned as forming, inpart, the food of the kites. But, though such is the general food of the majorityof the owls, and though they have the habit of wound-ing and disabling such prey by the snap of the bill,as well as by the clutch of the talons, there are someof the more powerful species which have differenthabits, and the b
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