Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/25

12 the talons are comparatively weak, and but slightly hooked: the head, and sometimes the neck, in a greater or less degree, are naked, or clothed only with a thin down; as is also the skin that covers the stomach. The wings are powerful and ample, and the general plumage is remarkably stiff and coarse.

The Vultures are widely scattered over the globe, but most abound in the regions that lie between the tropics. There they may generally be seen at all times of the day, soaring on motionless wings at a prodigious elevation, wheeling round in large circles with a peculiarly easy and graceful flight, as they reconnoitre the distant earth below. The senses of sight and smell they possess in great perfection, and notwithstanding the assertions of Mr. Audubon, that the former only is put in requisition by them, there is abundant evidence that these birds are guided to their food by the olfactory organs, as well as by those of vision.

In this genus, which is confined to America, and comprises but three species, the beak is large and strong; the nostrils are oval, and placed longitudinally at the edge of the cere; the latter, as well as the forehead, is surmounted by a thick and fleshy comb or caruncle; the third quill-feather is the longest; the hind toe is very short.

We illustrate this genus by the far-famed Condor of the Andes, (Sarcoramphus gryphus, .), which, owing to exaggerated reports of its dimensions from the early European travellers, was formerly supposed to be identical with the