Zebras in harness pulling a chariot
Two llamas
Llama Peruviana.Cuv.
In common with the Camels, the Llamas are distinguished from all other Ruminating animals chiefly by the absence of horns, by the structure of their feet, and by their mode of dentition, in all of which these two closely allied groups very nearly correspond with each other. In their general form there is also some similarity; but the latter are much lighter in their proportions, and far more lively and spirited in their motions. They exhibit no traces of the clumsy and unsightly humps which disfigure the backs of the former, and their necks and limbs, of greater comparative length, appear to be far less oppressed by the superincumbent weight of the headand body, which are consequently maintained in a more upright and graceful position. The principal difference in their internal structure consists in the want of that extensive appendage to the first stomach, which renders the Camel so peculiarly valuable in situations where water is with difficulty procured, by enabling him to lay in at once a sufficient stock of that indispensable necessary to supply his wants for many days. But even without this appendage the Llamas are observed to be by no means so much exposed to frequent thirst as the generality of animals, and to drink but rarely and in moderate quantity.
The feet of the Camels and of the Llamas are very different in form from those of all the other Ruminants. They are, it is true, deeply divided, like those of the latter, into two apparent toes; but cannot be said, like them, to part the hoof, for they have no real hoof, and the extremities of their protruded toes are armed only with short, thick, and crooked claws. These toes are in the Camels united posteriorly by a horny process, which is wanting in the Llamas. The teeth of both are nearly similar: they consist of six incisors in the lower jaw and two in the upper; of two canines in each; and of six molars in the upper, and five in the lower, on each side. None of the other Ruminants exhibit the least appearance of cutting teeth in the upper jaw. The nostrils of both consist externally of mere fissures in the skin, which may be opened and closed at pleasure, and which are surrounded by a naked muzzle; and their upper lip is divided into two distinct portions, which are very extensible, and capable of much separate motion.
The species of the group, of which the Llama formsthe type, have been involved by the imperfect descriptions of naturalists in almost inextricable confusion. No less than five have been admitted; but the variations of colour and of size, and the degree of length and fineness of the wool, differences rather commercial than natural, afford almost the only positive distinctions that have yet been laid down between them; and when we consider that some of them have been for ages in a state of domestication, it will readily be allowed that such characters as these are, to say the least, trivial and uncertain. Our animals, which are nearly four feet in height at the shoulder, and somewhat more than five feet to the top of the head, have the neck, the back, the sides, and the tail, which is rather short, covered with a beautiful coat of long, bright brown, woolly hair. The long and pointed ears, and the small and attenuated head, on which the hair is short, close, and even, are of a grayish mouse-colour; the outside of the legs is of the same colour with the sides of the body; and their inside, as also the under part of the body and the throat, pure white. The hair on the limbs is short and smooth. In these respects they offer but little to distinguish them from any of the animals which have been exhibited in this country under the various names of Llamas, Pacos, and Guanacos. There is, however, at present in the Garden of the Zoological Society, an animal, which besides being of larger size, covered with longer and coarser wool, and entirely white (which latter circumstance may be purely accidental), differs remarkably in the form of the forehead, which in it is perfectly flat, while in our animals it rises in a strong curve. This character, it is probable, affords a permanent ground ofdistinction, although we venture not at present to speak decidedly respecting it.
The Llamas congregate together in considerable herds on the sides of the Andes, and generally in the colder and more elevated regions. When the Spaniards first arrived in Peru they were the only beasts of burden employed by the natives; and even at the present day, when horses have become so excessively common, they are usually preferred for passing the mountains, on which their sureness of footing, exceeding even that of the mule, gives them a manifest superiority. Generally speaking they are quiet, docile and timid; but they occasionally exhibit much spitefulness, especially if teased or ill treated. Their mode of evincing this is very peculiar, and consists in darting their saliva through their nostrils with considerable force. Like all the other Ruminants they subsist entirely on vegetables. Those in the Tower Menagerie have a particular fondness for carrots; and if one of these is abstracted from them while they are eating, their anger is immediately roused, and they spit, as it is termed, with the greatest vehemence, covering with their saliva a surface of three or four yards in extent. One of the animals in the cut is represented in the act.
Mountain travellers, llamas as pack-animals
Deer
Cervus Equinus.Cuv.
The Deer constitute a numerous and beautiful group of Ruminants, which are readily distinguished by the graceful symmetry of their form, by their long and slender, but firm and sinewy, legs, by their broad and pointed ears, and by the comparative shortness of their tails; but more especially by the generally large and branching horns which ornament the heads of the males. Like all the ruminating animals, with the exception of those mentioned in the preceding article, they are furnished with eight cutting-teeth in the lower jaw, opposed to a callous and toothless surface in the upper; and with expanded, flat, and deeply bifurcated hoofs, constitutingtwo distinct and apparent toes, above which they have also the rudiments of two others. Some of the species have canine teeth in the upper jaw, generally in the males alone; and they have all six molars on each side. In the greater number of them the nostrils are surrounded by a naked muzzle; and most of them are also provided with a sinus or sac, of greater or less extent, immediately beneath the inner angle of the eye, called the sub-orbital sinus, thelarmierof the French zoologists.
The horns, which form the most distinguishing character of the genus, are perfectly solid throughout their whole extent. Their form varies very considerably in the different races; but they are constantly uniform in the same species, unless accidentally or artificially perverted from their natural growth. In some they are simple at the base and terminate in a broad and palmate expansion, which is variously lobed and divided; in others they are more or less branched, giving off antlers in different directions; and in some few they are short and nearly simple. They fall off and are renewed annually in all the species which inhabit the northern and temperate regions of the earth, and in those in which they attain any considerable size; but Sir T. Stamford Raffles was of opinion, and his opinion has been in some measure confirmed by the observations of Major C. Hamilton Smith, that several of the tropical species with small and nearly simple horns are exempted from this general law. The horns are smaller and less developed in the young than in the full grown and adult animal, and diminish again in size, and frequently become irregular, as he advances in age. In one species alone, the Rein-Deer of the North, the female wears thesame palmy honours with the male; but they do not in her reach the same enormous extent.
The high degree of domestication to which this latter species has been brought, and the invaluable services which it renders to the Laplander, added to the tranquil content which most of the deer manifest in a state of captivity, afford sufficient proofs that there is nothing in the constitution of the group repugnant to their being tamed and familiarized with man; but from none of the other races have any real or essential advantages been as yet derived. The quiet confidence, mixed with a certain air of cautious timidity, which they exhibit in their half-restricted state, in the park or the chase, where they are kept more for ornament than use, is perfectly indicative of their general character. But the very mildness of their disposition has been turned to their disadvantage, and one of the gentlest of animals, because endowed by nature with a high degree of fleetness, with some sagacity, and with a certain share of timidity, has been marked out by man as the chosen victim of his cruelty, disguised under the captivating name of sport.
The Samboo Deer, as the present species is called by his keepers, belongs to the Rusa group, which are distinguished from the rest of the genus by their horns being provided with a single antler at the base, and with a lateral snag which forms a kind of bifurcation towards the extremity. They are usually of large stature and nearly uniform colours, and are, for the most part, furnished with a rough and shaggy mane, a broad and expanded muzzle, and sub-orbital openings of considerable size. The handsome Stag now before us is dark cinereous brown above, nearly black on the throat andbreast, and light fawn, intermixed with dirty white, on the inside of the limbs. His eyes are surrounded by a fawn-coloured disc, and patches of the same colour occupy the fore knees, and a space above each of the hoofs in front. His nose, which is black, is enveloped in an extensive muzzle; his ears are nearly naked on the inside, and marked by a patch of dirty white at the base externally; and his mane, which spreads downwards over the neck and throat, is remarkably thick and heavy. His tail is black above, and light fawn beneath; and a disc of the latter colour occupies the posterior part of the buttocks, having on each side a blackish line which separates it from the lighter tinge of the inside of the thighs. His horns, when properly grown, consist of a broad burr, from which the pointed basal antler rises almost perpendicularly to the extent of nine or ten inches; of a stem, which is first directed outwards, and then forms a bold curve inwards; and of a snag, or second antler of smaller size, arising from the stem near its extremity on the posterior and internal side, and forming with it a terminal fork, the branch however being shorter than the stem, and not exceeding five or six inches in length. The entire length of the horns is about two feet; they are of a dark colour, very strong, and deeply furrowed throughout.
The foregoing description of the horns, it should be observed, is taken from those of the year before last, which were of the genuine or normal form. Those of the last year, which are represented in the cut prefixed, were from some cause or other remarkably different, that of the right side especially exhibiting a singular monstrosity in the production of additional branches ofirregular form. Whether this was the effect of disease or of advancing age, or whether it arose solely from some temporary and accidental cause, will probably be determined by the growth of the present year, which is not yet sufficiently advanced to enable us to ascertain its probable form.
With regard to the sub-orbital sinus, which in this and all the neighbouring species is of very considerable size, its uses are evidently connected with the function of respiration, and probably also with the sense of smell. It is denoted externally by a longitudinal fissure, placed beneath the inner angle of each of the eyes, and leading into a sac or cavity, which in some cases communicates internally with the nose; and its inner surface is lined by a membrane abundantly supplied with follicles for the secretion of mucus, which is sometimes produced in very large quantities. This latter circumstance has induced some naturalists to regard these openings as mere cuticular appendages. That they really, in some species at least, communicate with the nostrils, is proved by the observations of Mr. White of Selbourne, who states that in consequence of this communication the Fallow-Deer are enabled to take long-continued draughts with their noses deeply immersed in the water, the air in the mean time passing through the sub-orbital slits. So singular a statement was naturally enough doubted and called in question; but it has never, so far as we know, been impugned on ocular testimony; while it has received the fullest confirmation from other observations made upon the very species now under consideration, in which the air passing from the sub-orbital sinus, while the animal drinks, may be felt by the hand, and evenaffects the flame of a candle. Another proof of the connexion of these cavities with the nose is derived from the fact that the animals which are provided with them frequently apply their orifices, equally with those of the nostrils, to the food which they are about to take, opening and shutting them with great rapidity.
The subject of the present article, which, like all the rest of the minor group of which he forms a part, is a native of India and of the Indian Islands, was a present to his Majesty, who kept him for some time, in company with another of the same species, at large in the great park at Windsor. As both, however, happened to be males, they disagreed so violently, and their quarrels at length rose to such a pitch, that in order to preserve peace it was found absolutely necessary to separate them; and our animal, as the most outrageous of the two, was dismissed the royal service, and condemned to the captivity of the Tower. Since this period he has become exceedingly tame, the cause of his former ill temper being removed, and demeans himself as quietly as the most harmless and gentlest of his tribe.
Stags fighting
Antelope
Antilope Cervicapra.Pall.
In the elegant symmetry of their form and the light and graceful agility of their motions, the Antelopes are superior even to the Deer, whom, however, they closely resemble, not merely in outward shape, but also in internal structure. Like them, in addition to the coincidence of a slightly made and beautifully proportioned figure, they are frequently furnished with a naked muzzle, and with the same remarkable sinus beneath the inner angle of the eye; and their ears are generally of considerable size, erect, and pointed. But they are strikingly distinguished from them and from all the other animals of the order by the peculiar character oftheir horns, which are formed of an elastic sheath enclosing a solid nucleus, and are for the most part common to the females as well as to the males. They have no canine teeth, and exhibit no appearance of a beard such as is seen in the Goats. The horns vary greatly in the different races; they are sometimes straight and upright, at other times slightly curved, and frequently spirally twisted with the most beautiful regularity: they are usually surrounded by elevated rings or by a spiral ridge, are constantly of the same form in the same species, and are not subject to an annual falling off and renewal, as in the Deer, from which they differ also in their mode of growth, the horns of the latter group lengthening at their apices, while those of the former receive their increase at the base.
In their natural habits the numerous species of which this group is composed approach very closely to the Deer; there is, however, considerable variety in their mode of life. They inhabit almost every description of country; the sandy desert, the open plain, the thicket, the forest, the mountain, and the precipice, being, each in its turn, the favourite haunt of the different races; but, with the exception of a few species, they do not advance much beyond the limits of the tropics. The smaller ones usually prefer a solitary life, but the larger, for the most part, congregate together in herds, which are generally few in number. In their manners they exhibit much of that cautious vigilance and easily startled timidity, combined with a certain degree of occasional boldness and not a little curiosity, which are the natural consequences of their wild and unrestricted habits, of their trivial means of defence against thenumerous enemies to whose attacks they are exposed, and of the unequalled fleetness of their speed. In some this latter quality consists of a continued and uniform gallop, which in others is interrupted at every third or fourth stroke by a long and generally a lofty bound, producing a beautiful effect by its constant and rapid recurrence.
The Indian Antelope, of which the specimen in the Tower constitutes a remarkable and highly interesting variety, is not only one of the most beautiful, but also the most celebrated species of the group. It occupies the place of Capricorn in the Indian Zodiac, and is consecrated to the service of Chandra or the Moon. In size and form it closely resembles the Gazelle of the Arabs, the well known emblem of maiden beauty, typified, according to the poets, in the elastic lightness of its bound, the graceful symmetry of its figure, and the soft lustre of its full and hazel eye. From this truly elegant creature our Antelope is, however, essentially distinguished by several striking characters. Its horns, which are peculiar to the male, are spirally twisted, and form, when fully grown, three complete turns; they are closely approximated to each other at the base, but diverge considerably as they proceed upwards. They occasionally attain a length of nearly two feet, and are surrounded throughout by elevated and close-set rings. The two horns taken together have frequently been compared to the branches of a double lyre. The extremity of the nose is bare, forming a small and moist muzzle; the sub-orbital openings are larger and more distinct than in almost any other species; and the ears are pointed and of moderate size. The natural coloursvary with the age of the animal, but correspond in general pretty closely with those of the common deer. They may be shortly described as fawn above and whitish beneath, becoming deeper with age, and lighter in the females than in the males. The occasional stripes of a lighter or darker colour, which are generally visible on various parts of the body, can scarcely be considered as occurring with sufficient regularity to allow of their being described as characteristic of the species.
But for these shades of colour, or for any other, we should look in vain in the animal of the Tower Menagerie, which, in consequence of a particular conformation, not unfrequent in some species of animals, and occasionally met with even in the human race, is perfectly and purely white. In order to explain this phenomenon, which is one of the most curious, but at the same time one of the most simple in physiology, it is necessary to observe that there exists beneath the epidermis, or outer covering of the skin, both in man and animals, a peculiar membrane of very fine and delicate texture, which is scarcely visible in the European but sufficiently obvious in the Negro, termed by anatomists the rete mucosum. In this net-work is secreted, from the extremities of the minute vessels which terminate upon its surface, a mucous substance which varies in colour according to the complexion of the individual, of the varieties in which it is the immediate cause; and from the substance thus secreted the colouring matter of the hairs and of the iris is derived. The pure whiteness then of the covering of the animal in question, and of all those which exhibit a similar variation from their natural tinge, is attributable solely to the absence of this secretion from whatevercause. It is always accompanied, as in the present instance, by a redness of the eyes, arising from the blood-vessels of the iris being exposed to view in consequence of the want of the usual coating formed by this secretion, by which they are naturally protected from the too great influence of the light. In the human race the individuals who are thus afflicted, characterized by the dull whiteness of their skins, the deep redness of their eyes, and their colourless, or, as it is generally termed, flaxen, hair, are called Albinos. They are generally timid in disposition, languid in character, and weak both in mind and body. The same original conformation, for it is always born with the individual and never acquired in after life, although sometimes prolonged beyond its limits in the shape of an hereditary legacy, is common to many animals. Perhaps the most familiar instances among these are the white mice, the white rabbits, and the white pigeons, which are known to every one. But it has also been occasionally seen in many other species, as monkeys, squirrels, moles, pigs, and even cows and horses, and, to come a little closer to our present subject, in goats and deer. Not even that massive and stupendous beast the Elephant is exempted from its influence. It can hardly be necessary to recall to the reader the title on which the ruler of millions of not uncivilized Asiatics, the Burmese monarch, prides himself more than on any other, inasmuch as it is the emblem of power and prosperity, that of Lord of the White Elephant; a title, which, while it demonstrates the fact of the existence of this deviation in the Elephant as well as in other animals, proves alsothe extreme rarity of its occurrence. It has moreover been noticed in many species of birds.
The present species of Antelope is spread over the whole of the Peninsula of Hindoostan and a part of Persia; but it is questionable whether it has been found in Africa, as is commonly asserted. They are said to bound with apparent ease over a distance of from twenty-five to thirty feet, and mounting to the height of ten or twelve. It is consequently useless to attempt to chase them in the common mode with hounds; and their pursuit is restricted to the higher nobility, who employ for the purpose either hawks, who pounce upon their quarry and detain it until the dogs can come up, or Chetahs, who attack them by surprise in the manner before described.
The elegant Albino now in the Tower was brought from Bombay by Captain Dalrymple of the Vansittart, and remained for a considerable time at Sand Pit Gate, where it was an especial favourite with his Majesty, as well on account of the gentleness of its disposition, as for its rarity and beauty. It bears its confinement in the Menagerie with perfect resignation, and is remarkable for the mildness and tranquillity of its deportment.
Hunters on horseback, dog, dead antelope
Sheep
Ovis Aries.Linn.—Var.Guineensis.
In characterizing the present genus, were we to look solely at the animal such as we have it daily before our eyes, the distinction between it and all the other Ruminants is too striking to be for a moment mistaken. But the insensible gradations which connect this familiar denizen of our downs and pastures with the untamed native of the desert and the precipice, and the close affinity which subsists between the latter and the goats, render it almost impossible to isolate them by any satisfactory characters. On the present occasion we shall content ourselves with observing that the sheep may generally be distinguished by the direction of theirhorns, by the elevation of their profile, and by their want of beard: characters neither essential nor infallible, but the best that can be offered.
The variety figured over leaf is in one of the many intermediate stages between unreclaimed barbarism and complete domestication. It is an awkward looking creature, high on the legs, narrow in the loins, and covered with a rough and shaggy coat. The back and sides are nearly black; the shoulders reddish brown; and the posterior part of the body, the haunches, the hind legs, and the tail, white; as are also the ears, which are rather large, the nose, and a spot over each eye. The horns, although the specimen is a male, are remarkably small, and enclose the ears within their curve. If the ears are freed from their confinement, the animal becomes very uneasy, and never rests until he has succeeded in replacing them, which he cannot accomplish without considerable difficulty. He was presented to the Menagerie by Lord Liverpool about six years ago, and is extremely mild in his temper.
Herd of sheep grazing near an African village
Two eagles
Haliaetos ossifragus.Sav.
Aquila Chrysaetos.Sav.
Having in the preceding article terminated the series of Mammiferous Quadrupeds at present existing in the Tower Menagerie, we must next direct our attention to the illustration of the Birds, a Class which, although fully entitled to the second place in the arrangement of the Animal Kingdom, is separated by a wide and almost unoccupied interval from that which unquestionably claims the foremost rank.
To commence then with the Eagles, which form a prominent group of the Rapacious Order, and are universally regarded as the most majestic, as well as the most powerful, of birds. In common with the wholeOrder, they are remarkable for the strong incurvation of their bill and talons, the latter of which are four in number on each of the feet, and are moved by means of a thick and strong muscular apparatus, which gives to the grasp of the larger species that extreme tenacity by which they are distinguished, enabling them to seize and carry off fish and birds, and even quadrupeds of moderate size. This innate propensity to rapine, derived from their peculiar conformation which renders them essentially flesh-eaters, indicates at once the analogical relationship borne by the Rapacious Birds to the Carnivorous Quadrupeds; and the high degree to which it is carried by the Eagles, their vast powers of flight, their towering majesty, their irresistible might, their uniform preference of living victims and rejection of the offal, render them superior to all other birds, in the same proportion as the Lion is allowed to take the lead among mammiferous quadrupeds.
The Eagles, properly so called, are characterized by a head covered with plumage and flattened above; eyes large, lateral, and deep-seated; a bill of great strength, arched and hooked at its extremity alone, and furnished at its base with a naked membrane, called the cere, in which the openings of the nostrils are situated; the wings broad and powerful; the tarsus, or that joint of each leg which is immediately above the toes, strong, short, and covered with feathers down to the very base; the toes thick and naked, three of them pointing forwards, and the fourth constantly directed backwards; and the talons of great power and strongly curved. The Golden Eagle, which occupies the right hand in the cut, is frequently three feet and a half in length from theextremity of the beak to that of the tail. His general colour is blackish brown both above and below, assuming on the legs a grayish or sometimes a reddish tinge. His beak is bluish black, covered at the base by a yellow cere; and his toes, which are also yellow, terminate in strong black talons, the posterior one of which frequently attains an enormous length. He is met with throughout the Old Continent, and more especially within the limits of the temperate zone, building his aiery, which he shares with a single female, in the clefts of the loftiest rock, or among the topmost branches of the alpine forest. From this retreat he towers aloft in search of his prey, which he pursues by sight alone, subsisting principally on other birds and on the smaller quadrupeds, which he carries off in his powerful clutch. When his hunger is extreme he sometimes pounces upon the larger animals; but in such circumstances he is compelled to content himself with sucking their blood upon the spot, and with stripping off portions of their flesh, on which to satiate his appetite at home. Instances have been known of his attaining in captivity to an age of more than a hundred years.
The principal distinguishing mark of the group which has been separated under the name of the Sea-Eagles, consists in the plumage of the tarsus, which in the latter extends only half way down, the lower part being consequently left entirely bare. The species figured on the left, at the head of this article, is commonly more than three feet in length, and the expansion of his wings measures seven or eight feet. His bill is usually of a bluish black colour towards the extremity, and yellow at the base. His general hue is blackish brown, deeperabove than beneath, and relieved on the breast and under parts by numerous white spots. The larger feathers of his wings are nearly black; but those of the tail are not so deeply tinged. The naked portion of the legs, as also the toes, are covered with bright yellow scales; and the talons are of a bright black.
The Great Sea-Eagle is a native of the Northern Hemisphere, in the colder regions of which he appears to be most at home. He builds his nest in similar situations with the last, but prefers the neighbourhood of the sea, or of lakes and rivers, over which he is frequently to be seen, especially in the morning and towards nightfall, hovering in quest of prey, and pouncing down upon the fish which rise to the surface, or even diving after those which are visible beneath. These form his principal sustenance; but he seldom suffers flesh or fowl to escape him if they chance to fall in his way. His flight is less rapid and less lofty than that of the Golden Eagle; and he neither perceives his prey at such a distance, nor pursues it with such pertinacity.
The noble birds which illustrate the present article were presents from the Marchioness of Londonderry.
Roman crest, SPQR and an eagle
Griffin
Gypaetos barbatus.Storr.
The Bearded Griffin takes an intermediate station between the Eagles and the Vultures, with the former of which it agrees more closely in general appearance and external form, and with the latter in internal structure and habits. The principal point in which it differs from them both consists in the tuft of bristly hairs which take their origin partly from the cere that covers the base of the beak, and partly from the under mandible, and are directed outwards and downwards in such a manner as to give rise to that appearance from which the bird has received his epithet of Bearded. His beak is strongly arched at the extremity, and is remarkable for its greatvertical thickness, more especially at the point where the curvature commences. His head, flat like that of the Eagle, is covered with short feathers, which are of a dirty white; and his eyes are nearly on the same plane with the surface of his head. The general tint of his plumage is blackish brown above and grayish fawn beneath, and his legs are feathered with the latter colour down to the very toes, which are long and grayish. His claws are of moderate length and curved; but the force of his clutch is far inferior to that of the Eagles.
The Bearded Griffin is the largest European bird of prey, and builds its aiery among the loftiest precipices of nearly all the alpine chains of the Old Continent. Here it displays the tyranny, but not the courage, of the Eagle, attacking such living animals only as are likely to fall an easy prey, and gorging in troops with all the rapacity of Vultures upon the most corrupted carrion.
The individual figured is a fine specimen, but is not yet in perfect plumage.
Griffin killing a snake
Two griffon vultures
Vultur fulvus.Linn.
If the Eagles are considered as bearing a close analogy to the more noble and perfect among the Carnivorous Quadrupeds, such as the Lion and the Tiger, which live in solitary grandeur and attack none but living victims, the Vultures may, with equal propriety, be regarded as the representatives of the Jackal, the Wolf, the Hyæna, and other inferior animals of that Order, which hunt in packs and prey upon carrion. Endowed like these animals with an extreme fineness of scent, they are attracted by the smell of dead, and more especially of putrid, carcases, at an immense and almost incredible distance; and usually assemble in vast numbers to glutthemselves upon the disgusting banquet on the field of recent battle, or wherever the work of carnage has been carried to any great extent. Under such circumstances, however horrible that propensity may appear which leads them to prey upon the unburied corpses, they unquestionably fulfil a wise provision of nature by removing from the surface of the earth a mass of corruption and putridity which in the warmer climates where they abound would otherwise taint the very atmosphere, and might possibly give rise to diseases still more fatal in their effects than the malignant passions of man himself, from which the destruction sprung. But although such a scene affords the greatest scope for the indulgence of their depraved appetites, and consequently congregates them together in the largest numbers, it is happily of rare occurrence, and their usual subsistence is derived from the bodies of dead animals. To these they are attracted by the smell, and frequently in flocks so numerous as actually to cover and conceal the object of their attack, from which they tear away large gobbets, and swallow them entire and with insatiable avidity, never ceasing while yet a morsel remains. It is only when hard pressed by hunger that they venture to attack a living creature; and their ravages of this kind are always confined to the peaceful and timid denizens of the poultry-yard. They never carry off their victims in their talons, but uniformly devour them upon the spot; and even that portion of their prey which they transport to their young is first swallowed, and afterwards disgorged in the nest.
These peculiarities of habit, by which the Vultures are strikingly contrasted not merely with the Eagles,but even with the smallest of the Falcon tribe, are the necessary result of their organisation. Their beak, it is true, is like that of the Eagles strongly curved at the point alone, and they also possess all the technical characters of the Rapacious Order; but their talons are far inferior, both in size and in the degree of their curvature, and they are consequently unable to grasp their prey with sufficient force to transport it through the air. Their diminished power of flight renders them incapable of soaring upwards to search abroad with piercing eye for the objects of their rapacity; and they are therefore left dependent upon the acute sensibility of their nostrils, which amply supplies the deficiency. Of the external characters which they exhibit the most remarkable is derived from the want of plumage on the head and neck, which are covered in the greater number of the species by nothing more than a sort of down or by short and smooth hairs. The object of this provision appears to be to enable them to bury as it were their heads in the carrion on which they feed, without exposing their plumage to be soiled by the filth which it might otherwise contract. Their eyes are placed on a level with their cheeks; their heads are rounded above; they have most frequently a ruff of considerable extent round the lower part of their necks; and their legs are usually bare of feathers and covered with large scales. Their very attitudes offer the most perfect contrast to those of the Eagles; the latter constantly maintaining a bold upright posture, with their wings closely pressed to their sides, and their tails elevated, while the Vultures on the contrary are always seen bending forwards in a crouching position, with their wings depressed and separatedfrom their bodies, and their tails trailing upon the ground.
The Griffon Vulture is equal in size to the larger species of Eagle; his head and neck are covered with short white down, and the latter is ornamented at its base with an extensive ruff of long feathers of a clear and brilliant white. The plumage of the body is reddish gray; the quill-feathers of the wings and tail are of a blackish brown; and the beak and claws are nearly black. He is a native of the greater part of Europe and of Asia, and inhabits during the summer the more elevated regions of the two continents, building his nest in the rocks and among inaccessible precipices. In the winter he is said to migrate to warmer and more temperate climes. His habits are precisely those of the rest of the group to which he belongs.
Griffon vultures hunting a snake
Secretary bird
Gypogeranus serpentarius.Illig.
The singular conformation of this bird, so different in many respects from that of the Order to which both in its leading characters and in its habits it obviously belongs, rendered it for a long time one of the torments of ornithologists, who puzzled themselves in vain to assign it a definitive place in the system, and could not agree even with regard to the grand division of the class to which it ought to be referred. Thus M. Temminck was at one time inclined to refer it to the Gallinaceous Order; and M. Vieillot, after repeatedly changing his mind upon the subject, at last arranged it among the Waders, with which it has absolutely nothing in commonexcept the length of its legs. It appears, however, to be now almost universally admitted that its closest affinity is with the Vultures, with which it agrees in the most essential particulars of its organization, and from which it differs chiefly in certain external characters alone, which unquestionably give to it an aspect exceedingly distinct, but are not of themselves of sufficient importance to authorize its removal to a distant part of the classification. It constitutes in fact one of those mixed and aberrant forms by means of which the arbitrary divisions of natural objects established by man are so frequently assimilated to each other in the most beautiful, and occasionally in the most unexpected, manner.
The principal generic characters of the Secretary consist in the form of his beak, which is shorter than the head, thick, and curved nearly from the very base, where it is covered with a cere; in the long and unequal feathers which take their origin from the back of his head, and are susceptible of elevation and depression; in the naked skin which surrounds his eye, and which is shaded by a series of hairs in the form of an eyebrow; in the great length and slenderness of his tarsi, which form his most striking characteristic in an Order remarkable for a structure exactly the reverse; and in the shortness of his toes, which are terminated by blunted talons of little comparative size or curvature. The only known species measures upwards of three feet in length. Its plumage, when in a perfect state, is for the most part of a bluish gray, with a shade of reddish brown on the wings, the large quill-feathers of which are black. The throat and breast are nearly white, and the rest of the under surface of the body offers a mixture of black, red,and white, the plumage of the legs being of a bright black, intermingled with scarcely perceptible brownish rays. The plumes of the crest which ornaments the back of the head, and from the supposed resemblance of which to the pens frequently stuck behind the ears of clerks and other writers the name of Secretary was given to the bird, are destitute of barbs at the base, but spread out as they advance, and are coloured with a mixture of black and gray. Each of the wings is armed with three rounded bony projections, with which, as well as with his feet, the bird attacks and destroys his prey.
In his habits he partly resembles both the Eagle and the Vulture, but differs from them most completely in the nature of his prey and in his mode of attacking it. Like the former he always prefers live flesh to carrion; but the food to which he is most particularly attached consists of snakes and other reptiles, for the destruction of which he is admirably fitted by his organization. The length of his legs not only enables him to pursue these creatures over the sandy deserts which he inhabits with a speed proportioned to their own, but also places his more vulnerable parts in some measure above the risk of their venomous bite; and the imperfect character of his talons, when compared with those of other rapacious birds, is in complete accordance with the fact that his feet are destined rather to inflict powerful blows, than to seize and carry off his prey. When he falls upon a serpent, he first attacks it with the bony prominences of his wings, with one of which he belabours it, while he guards his body by the expansion of the other. He then seizes it by the tail and mounts with it to a considerable height in the air, from which he drops it to theearth, and repeats this process until the reptile is either killed or wearied out; when he breaks open its skull by means of his beak, and tears it in pieces with the assistance of his claws, or, if not too large, swallows it entire.
Like the Eagles these birds live in pairs, and not in flocks; they build their aiery, if so it may be termed, on the loftiest trees, or, where these are wanting, in the most bushy and tufted thickets. They run with extreme swiftness, trusting, when pursued, rather to their legs than to their wings; and as they are generally met with in the open country, it is with difficulty that they can be approached sufficiently near for the sportsman to obtain a shot at them. They are natives of the south of Africa, and appear to be tolerably numerous in the neighbourhood of the Cape; where, it is said, they have been tamed to such a degree as to render them useful inmates of the poultry-yard, in which they not only destroy the snakes and rats which are too apt to intrude upon those precincts, but even contribute to the maintenance of peace among its more authentic inhabitants by interposing in their quarrels and separating the furious combatants who disturb it by their brawls.