A synopsis of natural history : embracing the natural history of animals, with human and general animal physiology, botany, vegetable physiology, and geology / translated from the latest French edition of C. Lemmonnier, with additions from the works of Cuvier, Dumaril, Lacepede, etc., and arranged as a text book for schools by Thomas Wyatt.

Lemonnier, Céran

Date:: 1839

Credit: A synopsis of natural history : embracing the natural history of animals, with human and general animal physiology, botany, vegetable physiology, and geology / translated from the latest French edition of C. Lemmonnier, with additions from the works of Cuvier, Dumaril, Lacepede, etc., and arranged as a text book for schools by Thomas Wyatt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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ORDER I. RAPACE.E.* Beak bent at the extremity; upper mandible dilated on each side, or armed with a tooth; feet robust, short, with three toes before and one behind, armed with claws gene- rally sharp; sternum without lateral slopes. The species comprised under this head are voracious and cruel; they are among Birds, what the Carnivora are among Quadrupeds; they live on prey or carrion, and construct their nests, called eyries, in elevated places; lay generally three or four eggs; they are monogamous. Two families. FAMILY I. DIURNAL BIRDS. Head compressed laterally; eyes situated at the sides ; toes without feathers; exterior toe always directed to the front, and most frequently united by its base to the middle toe by the aid of a small membrane; nostrils pierced in a membrane called the cera; stomach almost altogether mem- branous ; intestines short. Three tribes. Tribe I. Vultur, Lin. Vultures. Eyes even with the head; the tarsi reticulated, that is to say, covered with small scales; an elongated beak curved only at the end; a greater or less portion of the head and neck divested of feathers; wings so long that in walking they hold them half extended ; talons feeble in proportion to their size. Four genera. Genus Vultur, Cuv. Vulture proper. Head and neck naked; collar of long feathers and down at the root of the neck; beak large and strong ; nostrils dis- posed transversely at its base; no caruncles (a kind of fleshy excrescence). [Old Continent.] Genus Sarcoramphus, Dum. Base of the beak surmounted with caruncles ; nostrils oval and longitudinal. [America only.] * Birds of prey.

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