a. [ad. L. vulturīnus, f. vultur VULTURE sb.: see -INE.]
1. Of or belonging to the vulture tribe; resembling a vulture: a. In names of birds.
1647. Trapp, Comm. Matt. xxiv. 28. The vulturine eagles especially … follow armies, and feed on carcases.
a. 1672. Willughby, Ornith. (1678), 64. The Vulturine Eagle of Aldrovandus, called Percnopteros.
1809. Shaw, Gen. Zool., VII. 58. Vulturine Eagle, Falco vulturinus. Ibid., 343. Vulturine Raven, Corvus vulturinus.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, III. 48. The vulturine eagle … makes the mountain precipices its abode.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 21. A little orbital space is bare in many birds, as the vulturine hawks, and some pigeons.
1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., III. 313. On the coast the chief enemy of the Parrots is the Vulturine Sea-Eagle (Gypohierax angolensis).
b. In general use. Also fig.
1721. Bailey, Vulturine,… rapacious.
1790. Pennant, Tour Scotl., I. 58. He … sells it at five shillings,… thus happily disappointing the rapacity of the vulturine monopolizer.
1843. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, II. 229/1. Even the petticoated torch-bearers from rotten Rome, if more blustering,… were less bitter and vulturine.
1880. Swinburne, Stud. Shaks., 207. But the virtuous critic, after the alleged nature of the vulturine kind, would appear to have eyes and ears and nose for nothing else.
1886. Guillemard, Cruise Marchesa, II. 219. The rare Pesquet’s Parrot,… half vulturine in appearance and with the face and throat bare.
2. Of or pertaining to a vulture or vultures; characteristic of, like that of, a vulture.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Vulturine, pertaining to the ravenous Bird called a Vulture.
1658. Phillips, Vulturine, belonging to a Vultur or Geyr.
1852. Zoologist, X. 3646. It has … the real vulturine fondness for carrion.
1855. Kingsley, Misc., Raleigh (1859), I. 31. There is no more to be discovered in the matter, save by the vulturine nose which smells a carrion in every rose-bed.
1883. E. O’Donovan, Merv Oasis, II. xxxvii. 130. His face was … spoiled by an uneasy, vulturine expression of the eye, the pupil being quite surrounded by the white.
