In proportion to the size of their body, porpesses yield a great quantity of excellent oil; but from the difficulty there is in catching them, in sufficient number to repay the labour, they are seldom thought worth pursuing. The flesh, as well as that of the dolphin, was formerly in great estimation in England. Among the provisions for the celebrated inthronization feast of George Neville, Archbishop of York, in the reign of Edward the Fourth, are enumerated no fewer than twelve porpesses and seals. These animals, however, are now entirely neglected with us as food; yet the inhabitants of Greenland and Lapland consider the flesh of the porpesse as highly excellent. The former even eat the fat, the entrails, and the skin; but they seldom cook the flesh till its hardness is destroyed by long keeping. The Americans use the skins (dressed in a peculiar manner) for making waistcoats and breeches; they also form them into an excellent covering for carriages.
CLASS II.—BIRDS.
ORDER I.—ACCIPITRES, OR RAPACIOUS BIRDS.
123. The AQUILINE or EGYPTIAN VULTURE (Vultur percnopterus) is a large bird of prey, which has a naked head and neck; a black and hooked beak, yellow at the base; and the quill feathers of the wings, except the first two, black, edged with hoary.
The male is of a dirty white colour, and the female brown, with, the above exception of the quill feathers.
Immense flocks of aquiline vultures are observable near all the principal towns of Egypt, Syria and Persia.
Filthy and disgusting as these birds are, not only in their appearance but in all their habits, they are of almost indispensable utility to mankind in those countries where they are found. They may be considered the scavengers of hot climates. In conjunction with other animals of similar appetites and propensities, they clear away, by devouring them, all the remains of animal substances which otherwise would be left to putrefy, and would infect the air with the most noxious effluvia. They are consequently protected and encouraged by mankind. The ancient Egyptians held them in such veneration as to punish with death any person who destroyed them. In consequence of this protection, they have become fearless of mankind, and, even in the streets of the most populous towns of Egypt, may be seen to feed with the greatest familiarity.
These vultures devour also the eggs and young ones of the crocodiles, and destroy myriads of rats and mice, as well as reptiles of every description, which abound among the mud, and in all the grounds that are fertilized by the overflowing of the Nile.