The Vulture has a large and strong bill, straight at the base, convex and rounded at the point ; the nostrils are naked, rounded, and obliquely pierced ; the head and neck are bare of feathers, but covered with a short down, with a collar of long soft feathers at the base of the neck. They feed almost ex clusively on carrion, but occasionally make inroads on flocks. They are unable, however, to carry off in their talons what they kill, as do eagles. Their flight, though slow, is powerful and long sustained. Their flesh is so disgusting that even the scavenger-ants leave it untouched.
Two species belong to the old world, the V. cinereus, and the V. fulvus. Both are found spread over northern Africa and southern Europe, and both may have been known in Palestine. W. L. A.
NET. There are in Scripture several words de noting different kinds of nets, and this, with the frequency of images derived from them, shows that nets were much in use among the Hebrews for fishing, hunting, and fowling. for the two latter purposes, nets were formerly used to an extent of which now, since the invention of fire-arms, a notion can scarcely be formed. 1. tin which denotes a net for either fishing or fowling. It is derived from a word signifying ' to shut up ;' and the idea is, therefore, founded on its shutting in the prey. It occurs in Hab. i. 16, 17; Ezek. xxvi. 5, 14 ; xlvii. so, etc. In Zech. xiv. i i and Mal. iii. 24 it is used in the sense of destruction or curse. In Eccles. vii. 26, it is applied by an apt metaphor to female entanglements. 2. nzik mar or machnzar, which occurs only in Ps. cxli. io, Is. li. 20, where it denotes a hunter's net, ; but a longer word, from the same source, rnnzn nzik moreth, denotes the net of fishermen in the only passages in which it is found (Is. xix. 8 ; Hab. i. 15, 16). In these cases we find, by tracing the words to their source, that the idea is founded upon the plaiting, braiding, or interweaving of the net-work. 3. ;int, sebaka, which designates an actual hunting-net in Job xviii. 6; but elsewhere it is applied to net-work or lattice-work, especially around the capitals of columns (I Kings vii. 18, 2o, 41, 42; 2 Kings xxv. 17; 2 Chron. iv. 12, 13 ; Jer. lii. 22, 23) ; and also before a window or bal cony (2 Kings i. 2). In the N. T. no other net than that for fishing alone is mentioned. The word which describes it (Sitcrvov) is usually confined to fishing-nets by classical writers, although sometimes applied to the nets of hunters. Another word to describe a net, ciackifiXnarpov, occurs in Matt. iv. 18 ; Mark i. 16, which, like cherenz above, is founded on the idea of enfolding or shutting in the prey.
We have no positive information concerning the nets of the Hebrews, and can only suppose that they were not materially different from those of the ancient Egyptians, concerning which we now possess very good information. Indeed, the nets of Egypt, the fishers who used them, and the fish caught by them, are more than once mentioned in Scripture (Is. xix. 8). The usual fishing-net among this people was of a long form, like the common drag net, with wooden floats on the upper, and leads on the lower side. It was sometimes let down from a boat, but those who pulled it usually stood on the shore, and landed the fish on a shelving bank.
This mode, however, was more adapted to river than to lake fishing ; and hence, in all the detailed examples of fishing in the N. T., the net is cast from and drawn into boats, excepting in one case where the draft being too great to take into the boat, the fishers dragged the net after their boats to the shore (John xxi. 6, 8). Sometimes use was made of a smaller net for catching fish in shallow water, furnished with a pole on either side, to which it was attached ; and the fisherman, holding one of the poles in either hand, thrust it below the surface of the water, and awaited the moment when a shoal of fish passed over it. [FISH.] It is interesting to observe that the fishermen in the boat, excepting the master (No. 405), are almost naked, as are also those who have occasion to wade in the water in hauling the net to the shore (No. Such seems also to have been the practice among the Hebrew fishermen; for Peter, when he left the boat to haste'n on shore to his risen Lord, ' girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked' (John xxi. 7) ; although, in this case, the word ' naked' must be understood with some latitude. [NAKED.] Nets were also used in taking birds, to an extent of which we can scarcely form an adequate concep tion. A clap-net was usually employed. This was of different kinds, that shown in the cut (No. being the most common. It consisted of two sides or frames, over which the net-work was spread; at one end was a short net, .which they fastened to a bush, or a cluster of reeds, and at the other was one of considerable length, which, as soon as the birds were seen feeding in the area within, was pulled by the fowlers, causing the instantaneous collapse of the two sides (No. 407). Sir J. G. Wilkinson (Ancient Egyptians, iii. 45) says the nets are very similar to those used in Europe at the present day, but probably larger, and requiring a greater number of persons to manage them, than our own ; which, however, may be ascribed to an imperfection in the contrivance for closing them. [FowLING.] In hunting, a space of considerable size was. sometimes enclosed with nets, into which the animals were driven by beaters. The spots thus enclosed were usually in the vicinity of the water brooks to which they were in the habit of repairing in the morning and evening ; and having awaited the time when they went to drink, the hunters dis posed their nets, occupied proper positions for observing them unseen, and gradually closed in upon them. The usages of the Egyptians, and, so far as can be ascertained, of other Oriental nations, in this respect, correspond with the intimations of Julius Pollux (Ononzast. v. 4), who states that two kinds of nets were employed in this mode of hunt ing. One, a long net, called by the Greeks alicrus, was furnished with several ropes, and was supported on forked poles, varying in length to correspond with the inequalities of the ground over which it extended. The others were smaller nets, called ev6Sia, for stopping gaps. These practices are ob viously alluded to in such passages as Job xix. 6 ; Ps. cxl. 5; Is. Ii. 20.-J. K.