themselves with as much as they
can possibly contrive to swallow. They are also very strong and
difficult to kill, one of the condors having been known to walk about
after it had been strangled and hung on a tree with a lasso for several
minutes, and to keep on its legs after receiving three balls from a
pistol.

The vulture is wonderfully fitted by nature for the part it has to fill
as "scavenger" abroad, this being the name they often go by. It is large
and strong, so that the carcase of a horse or a buffalo is not too much
for it to attack. Its legs are strong, but not armed with sharp claws
like those of birds that feed on living prey. Its wings are long and
wide, and its bones, though thick, unusually light, so that the bird
can remain an immense time poised in the highest regions of the
atmosphere. Its beak is strong and hooked, and remarkably well formed
for tearing or dividing, and what is still more noticeable, the head and
neck which, from the disgusting nature of its food, must often be buried
in unclean carcases, are quite, or very nearly, destitute of feathers,
which, in such a situation, would be soon covered with dirt or blood,
and could not be kept clean by the bird's own bill. The smell of
vultures is, as may be supposed, very offensive, and they are altogether
very disagreeable birds to have anything to do with; but they are
appointed to fill a particular office in the world, and are found
invaluable in performing it.

The largest vultures are fifteen or sixteen feet from the tip of one
wing to the tip of the other, even when not stretched to the utmost,
and four feet from beak to tail. Its legs are as thick as a man's wrist,
and its middle claw seven inches long. They bring forth their young on
the tops of inaccessible rocks, in sunny regions, more than twelve
thousand feet above the level of the sea.

The European Vulture dwells amongst the Alps, but flies as far as the
mountains of Africa and Asia. It is not so large as the condor, seldom
exceeding the size of an eagle.

[Illustration: THE COCKATOO (OR PARROT).]

THE PARROT.

Now I have to talk to you of much prettier birds, though, alas! to tell
the truth, not half so useful as the disgusting vulture of whom we have
been speaking. This picture represents a cockatoo, one of the parrot
tribe, of which there are at least 250 species, including, besides this,
the parrot, macaw, lory, parrakeet, etc., etc.

Parrots are all, for the mos