70 Retrospective Criticism. 



the contrary, the horse in question had become sufficiently 

 putrid to allow the vultures to commence operations, then I 

 will show that the aerial account of the eagle and the vulture 

 is either a mere imaginary effusion of the author's fancy, or a 

 hoax played off upon his ignorance by some designing wag. 



The entrails of a dead animal are invariably the first part 

 to be affected by putrefaction. Now, we are told, that a piece 

 of gut had been torn from the rest, and swallowed by the vul- 

 ture ; a portion of the said gut, about a yard in length, hang- 

 ing out of his mouth. The vulture, pressed hard by the 

 eagle, tried in vain to disgorge the gut. This is at variance 

 with a former statement, in which Mr. Audubon assures us 

 that an eagle will force a vulture to disgorge its food in a mo- 

 ment: so that the validity of this former statement must be 

 thrown overboard, in order to insure the safety of the present 

 adventure; or, vice versa, the present adventure must inevi- 

 tably sink, if the former statement is to be preserved. Be this 

 as it may, the eagle, out of all manner of patience at the 

 clumsiness of the vulture, in his attempt to restore to daylight 

 that part of the gut which was lying at the bottom of his sto- 

 mach, laid hold of the end which was still hanging out of the 

 unfortunate rascal's mouth, and actually dragged him along 

 through the air, for a space of twenty or thirty yards, much 

 against the vulture's will. Now, though the eagle pulled, and 

 the vulture resisted, still the yard of gut, which we must sup- 

 pose was in a putrid state, for reasons already mentioned, re- 

 mained fixed and firm in the vulture's bill. With such a force, 

 applied to each extremity, the gut ought either to have given 

 way in the middle, or to have been cut in two at those places 

 where the sharp bills of the birds held it fast. But stop, 

 reader, I pray you : speculation might be allowed here, pro- 

 vided this uncommon encounter had taken place onterrajirma ; 

 but, in order that our astonishment may be wound up to the 

 highest pitch, we are positively informed that the contention 

 took place, not on the ground, or in a tree, but in the circum- 

 ambient air 1 



Pray, how was it possible for the eagle to progress through 

 the air, and to have dragged along a resisting vulture, by 

 means of a piece of gut acting as a rope, about a yard in 

 length? Birds cannot fly backwards ; and the very act of the 

 eagle turning round to progress after it had seized the end of 

 the gut, would have shortened the connecting medium so 

 much, that the long wings of both birds must have imme- 

 diately come in contact ; their progress would have been pre- 

 vented by the collision ; and, in lieu of the eagle dragging the 

 resisting vulture through the air, for a space of twenty or thirty 



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