Raptor

“ Raptores, or birds of prey. These birds are distinguished by a very strong and sharp bill more or less curved, but always hooked at the extremity of the upper mandible, which is covered at the base with a kind of skin called the cere. The nostrils are usually open. The legs are very strong, the feet are large, and the toes, which are four in number, are armed with very strong, sharp, curved claws. The principal raptorial birds are the vultures, including the condor; the falcon family, including the eagles, hawks, kites, and buzzards ”

“ In all the bill is heavy, powerful, and strongly hooked at the tip. The feet are strong, with long, curved claws (small in the vultures) and are fitted for seizing and holding living prey, such as smaller birds, fish, reptiles, and mammals which constitute the principal food of the true raptorial species. ”

“ The bird is very badly protected by nature against raptorial species, owing to its very conspicuous red beak, its habit of perching on the summit of tall plants and other elevated positions, its loud impetuous voice, which invites attention, and the weak eccentric flight, which challenges pursuit. ”

“ The same is true of the raptorial birds, or birds of prey, which are strong perchers and depend largely for their food supply on clutching their victims while on the wing. In all these birds the hind toe is also well developed, and is on the same plane as the anterior digits—a wise adaptation of means to ends. ”

“ Even the series of New Jersey hills, flattered by the name of the Orange Mountains, seem to balk many hawks which elect to 251 change their direction and fly to the right or left toward certain gaps or passes. Through these a raptorial stream pours in such numbers during the period of migration that a person with a foreknowledge of their path in former years may lie in wait and watch scores upon scores of these birds pass close overhead within a few hours, while a short distance to the right or left one may watch all day without seeing a single raptor. ”

“ The globe of the eye of these nocturnal raptores, being immoveably fixed in the socket by a strong elastic cartilaginous case, in the form of a truncated cone, they have to turn their heads to view objects out of the path of flight, and their neck is so adapted for this exertion, that they can with ease turn round the head in almost a complete circle, without moving the body. ”

“ Raptors such as the golden eagle, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, northern harrier, northern goshawk, red-tailed hawk, ferruginous hawk, American kestrel, flammulated owl, and great horned owl hunt their prey on the mesa tops with deadly speed and accuracy. ”

“ The old Order Raptores—birds of prey—included Hawks and Eagles, and Owls. These are now placed in two orders as "Diurnal Birds of Prey"—Hawks, and "Nocturnal Birds of Prey"—Owls. They all seize prey with the very well-developed talons, and not with the bill. Hence they were called Raptores—seizing birds. They use these talons when flying, and do not catch prey in scrub, or very close to the ground, unless in a clear space. ”

“ The Raptores present none of the grace and charming prattle of other races of birds. They enjoy no powers of song; their sole utterance consists either of harsh cries or strange and plaintive modulations. ”

“ As regards their powers of locomotion considerable difference is observable, according to the situations which the various species have been created to occupy; for while some run with the utmost swiftness, and fly with an energy scarcely inferior to that displayed by the Raptores, others move but slowly over the surface of the ground, and make their way through the air with comparative labour and difficulty. Some few frequent the branches of trees, and only take to the water in emergencies; but, for the most part, they both dive and swim with extraordinary facility. ”

“ The raptorial group called Mantidæ, which forms the subject of this article, includes species that maybe easily recognized by their large size, their enormous, spinous fore legs, which are adapted for seizing other insects, and from their devotional attitude when watching their prey. ”

“ They build their nests in the tops of the tallest trees in the wild, mountainous country of the west, and more rarely upon ledges of the cliffs. The nests are made of large sticks, lined with smaller ones and leaves and weeds. Their eggs are the most handsome of the Raptores, being white in color, and blotched, splashed, spotted and specked with light brown and clouded with gray or lilac, of course varying endlessly in pattern and intensity. ”

“ Next to the warblers, the raptores are the most difficult birds to distinguish one from the other. Nearly all of them are creatures of mottled-brown plumage, and, as the plumage changes with the period of life, it is impossible to differentiate them by descriptions of their colouring.
The vultures are perhaps the ugliest of all birds. Most of them have the head devoid of feathers, and they are thus enabled to bury this member in their loathsome food without soiling their feathers. In the air, owing to the magnificent ease with which they fly, they are splendid objects. ”

“ I think I am justified in believing that fear of hawks, like fear of men, is, in very nearly all cases, the result of experience and tradition. Nevertheless, I think it probable that in some species which have always lived in the open, continually exposed to attack, and which are preferred as food by raptors, such as duck, snipe, and plover, the fear of the falcon may be an inherited habit. ”

“ Their habit is to rise high above the earth and hang motionless in the atmosphere on outstretched wings, or sail in circles without any perceptible motion of the pinions. Vultures are not the only raptorial birds that do this. ”

“ The smaller fry appear to look upon the raptorial bird in much the same light as children regard the “bogey man.” For some unknown reason, they are afraid of him, but at the same time he affords them a certain amount of amusement. ”

“ The front legs being wonderfully well formed for raptorial purposes, have no capacity for locomotion or for supporting the Insect in the usual manner, so that the body has to be borne by the hinder two pairs of legs ”

“ All are either powerful swimmers and divers, or else are skillful in lying in wait and snatching or piercing any fish that comes sufficiently close to their motionless forms. The instrument (except in the Raptores, which use their talons) is the beak, which is long, straight, sharply pointed, and sharp-edged, so that a firm grip may be had of the slippery bodies of their prey. ”

“ At the end of this chapter we annex a brief analysis, the result of a number of post-mortem examinations of the crops and stomachs of various raptorial birds, which shows pretty conclusively that while game, etc., is included in their menu, by far the greater portion of their attack is directed against the reptile race—itself the most pernicious to game and all the defenceless creation. ”

“ The family of birds of prey affords us a large number of species common to England and India. Almost all the well-known English raptores are found in India—the peregrine falcon, the marsh harrier, the hen-harrier, the merlin, the kestrel, the sparrow-hawk, and the buzzard. All these are considerably more abundant in India than in the British Isles. ”

“ And of the other green birds we may almost say that they are precisely those that seem least in need of this form of protection. The parrakeets and barbets, thanks to their powerful beaks, are well adapted to fighting, while more pugnacious birds than bulbuls and pigeons do not exist. I think, therefore, that the green liveries of these birds are not the result of their necessity for protection from raptorial foes. ”

“ The most reasonable clue to this is, that there may be less to disturb the reptile at a time when all animated nature is to a certain extent inclined to retirement and repose; for if the reptile be disturbed, rain or no rain, the rattle vibrates. In English as well as in American scientific journals, the subject of the rattle is ever and again ventilated by physiologists, and new suggestions are thrown out. ”

“ The muscles of these enormous reptiles are very numerous, and their power immense, when exerted, as it is, for the purpose of depriving their victims of life, in the constrictions of the great coils or knots of the lithe body around the prey. The strong bones of large quadrupeds twined in the fatal embrace of one of these Serpents are broken to pieces in a moment by the irresistible pressure, which is not relaxed till the last motions of life have ceased in the miserable victim. ”

“ Every year of its life a new joint is supposed to be added, so that the reptile killed by the black snake, must have been twenty years old. Each joint was in form somewhat like the tip end of my thumb. I have often since seen rattlesnakes, though seldom one so large. Generally I have found them coiled up among the dry herbage, with the tip of the tail raised in the centre of the coil. On seeing me approach the creatures have instantly produced a quivering movement of their tails, which made the joints of the rattle shake against each other. ”

“ Feeling [Pg 278] the cold lubricous surface she suddenly raised herself, when the reptile rose, and, extending its hideous crest, wound itself gently round her neck. She was riveted to the spot; every muscle in her body became rigid, all vital action appeared suspended as she felt the venomous reptile spanning her neck within its horrible coil. She did not move; her breath was arrested, and her eyes fixed in mute horror, when the snake, gliding down her shoulder, passed round her arm, slid upon the palampore, and made its escape. ”

“ The nature of a reptile is now sufficiently intelligible for something to be said concerning flight, and structures by means of which some animals lift themselves in the air. It is not without interest to remember that, from the earliest periods in human records, representations have been made of animals which were furnished with wings, yet walked upon four feet, and in their typical aspect have the head shaped like that of a bird. ”

“ There are now living upon the earth more than four thousand kinds or species of cold-blooded animals which we call reptiles, all of which are easily distinguishable into four principal groups: the serpents and lizards, the crocodiles, the turtles, and the tuatera. Their habits and forms are very diverse, but they all possess in common certain structural characters which sharply distinguish them from all other living creatures. A reptile may be tersely defined as a cold-blooded, backboned animal which breathes air throughout life. ”

“ At length, to our infinite satisfaction we saw the head of the venomous reptile drop towards the ground, and we no longer heard the rattle of its tail; still the black snake, which had from the first kept its sharp eyes intently fixed on those of the rattle-snake, did not appear satisfied that life was extinct, but held it in a fast embrace, carefully avoiding the risk of a puncture from its fangs. ”

“ The ground-traps are considered by many the most scientific, leaving the shooter in doubt as to the direction of the bird’s flight, and preventing his shooting on the calculation which can be made very accurately with a spring-trap—that the bird will invariably be thrown to a certain place, and may be killed there, nominally on the wing, but before he has really got under weigh ”

“ The virulence of its poison, and the great size attained by some, renders them the terror of every man and beast where they abound. Fortunately for mankind, they have been provided by an ever-watchful Providence with what is termed a rattle; this is composed of a number of horny rings placed at the end of the tail,{211} which, on being shaken, produce a peculiar sound, and serve as warning. It is said that Nature every year adds one of these rings, thus marking the age of the reptile. ”

“ It's hard to drown a snake, you know.
"There were at least two dozen of the reptiles, and it looked bad for us fellows aloft. Did you ever see a snake climb a rope? He goes up in a sort of wriggling spiral, wrapped loosely round it, but shifting his different sections up for a fresh grip. The other fellows climbed to the topmast-crosstrees and looked down; but the snakes stopped at the eyes of the rigging, or the tops, and rested. ”

“ The elimination of Reptile characters from so much of the skeleton, and the substitution for them of the characters of Birds and Mammals, would be of exceptional interest if there had been any ground for regarding the flying animal as more nearly related to a Reptile than to a Bird. ”

“ So far as I am aware, the only explanation that has been suggested touching the function of the snake's rattle is that it serves as an advertisement of the whereabouts of the poisonous reptile, so that it may be avoided by enemies which might otherwise inadvertently injure it. ”

“ A common practice in Italy is to smear with bird-lime the branches in the neighbourhood of a captive owl, which results in the capture of numbers of birds, gathered to scold at their common enemy. Examples of the clap-trap are the clap-net, consisting of two nets laid flat on the ground and attached to cords in such a manner that they fly up and close when the draw-cord is pulled by a concealed trapper; and the various other spring-traps used by bird-catchers. The jaw-traps are the most important class of device for the capture of fur-bearing animals, and are the product of civilization. ”

“ Let us suppose that some imprudent person disturbs the formidable reptile sleeping in the sun. Suddenly the creature uncoils itself in circles one above another, unwinds with the suddenness of a spring, and, with its jaws wide open, strikes you on the hand. It is done in the twinkling of an eye. With the same rapidity the viper refolds its spiral and draws back, continuing to menace you with its head in the center of the coil. You do not wait for a second attack, you flee ”