siognomy_ and habits, that
they might be treated as one genus. Indeed, it would not lead to great
confusion in ornithological science, if they were generically classed
with the eagles--as both kinds have many points of similitude. The
vultures often kill their prey as eagles do; and it is certain that they
do _not_ prefer it in a putrid state. The eagles do not always kill
their prey, and many of them eat carrion. Some of the vultures--such as
the lammergeyer--have almost all the habits of the eagle. The
lammergeyer always kills what he eats, unless when pressed by hunger;
and there is a singular fact in relation to the food of this bird,--he
prefers certain parts of the bones of animals to their flesh!"

It is somewhat strange that the boy hunter, Lucien, should have known
this "fact," as I believe it is not in possession of the naturalists.
I, myself, was made acquainted with it by one of the "feeders" of the
superb collection in Regent's Park--who had observed this propensity for
bone-eating in a young African lammergeyer. He had observed also that
the bird was always healthier, and in better spirits, on the days when
he was indulged in his favourite osseous diet. These men usually know
more of natural history than the catalogue-makers and teeth-measurers of
the museum and the closet.

"Perhaps," continued Lucien, "one of the most essential points of
difference between the vulture and eagle lies in the claws. The claws
of the vultures are less developed, and their limbs want the muscular
power that those of eagles possess. Hence the former are less able to
kill a living animal, or tear the carcass of a dead one. They are
unable, also, to raise a large prey in their claws; and the stories of
vultures carrying off deer, and full-grown sheep, are mere fables. Even
the condor--the largest of the species known--cannot lift into the air a
weight of more than ten pounds. A deer of that weight would be rather a
small one, I fancy. Most of the wonderful stories about the condor were
propagated by the discoverers and conquerors of Spanish America; who, if
they were great conquerors, were also the greatest braggarts the world
ever saw. The books they have left behind them fully prove my
assertion; and I believe that their accounts of the Mexican and Peruvian
nations, whom they subdued, are not a whit less exaggerated than their
stories about the condor. Three centuries could not have so completely
swept away the