168 Retrospective Criticism. 



moment a prey is discovered, the favoured bird rounds to, 

 and, by the impetuosity of its movements, gives notice to its 

 nearest companion, who immediately follows him, and is suc- 

 cessively attended by all the rest. Thus the farthest from 

 the discoverer, being at a considerable distance, sails in a 

 direct line towards the spot indicated to him by the flight of 

 the others, who have all gone in a straight course before him, 

 with the appearance of being impelled by this extraordinary 

 power of smelling, so erroneously granted them." Here I 

 break the quotation, to ask the question, how are the hinder- 

 most vultures, which are successively attending to the notice 

 given by the favoured bird, in order to profit by it, to know 

 whether the favoured bird has alighted upon some large 

 carrion, or a diminutive garter snake ? The leader vulture, 

 according to our author's former experiment, would be 

 equally liable to fall down upon the one as upon the other; 

 and though he might get a mouthful, the rest would be sorely 

 disappointed. Again, suppose the leader were to round to 

 and fall upon a stuffed deerskin, and dilly dally his time 

 away in reconnoitring it, would not the rest, on coming up, 

 have just reason to be much out of temper? Our author 

 continues, " If the object discovered is large, lately dead, 

 and covered with a skin too tough to be ate and torn asunder " 

 (cart before the horse), " and afford free scope to their 

 appetite, they remain about it, and in the neighbourhood. 

 Perched on high dead limbs, in such conspicuous positions, 

 they are easily seen by other vultures, who through habit know 

 the meaning of such stoppages, and join the first flock, going 

 also directly, and affording further evidence, to those who 

 are satisfied with appearances only. In this manner I have 

 seen several hundreds of vultures and carrion crows as- 

 sembled near a dead ox, at the dusk of evening, that had 

 only two or three in the morning; when some of the latter 

 comers had probably travelled hundreds of miles, searching 

 diligently themselves for food, and probably would have had 

 to go much farther had they not espied this association." 

 A little after this, having described the manner in which the 

 * famished cannibals" satisfied their hunger, the author 

 says, " The repast finished, each bird gradually rises to the 

 highest branches of the nearest trees, and remains there, until 

 the digestion of all the food they" (instead of it) " have" 

 (has) " swallowed is completed." 



Here we have, perched on high trees, flocks of vultures 

 waiting till their dinner be sufficiently tender ; and also flocks 

 of vultures waiting on the highest branches of trees till their 

 dinner be sufficiently digested. The author tells us that the 



