On tJie John-Crow Vulture. 93 



" A person in the neighbourhood of the town having his 

 pastures much trespassed on by vagrant hogs, resorted to his 

 gun to rid himself of the annoyance. A pig which had been 

 mortally wounded, and had run squeaking and trailing his 

 blood through the grass, had not gone far before it fell in the 

 agonies of death ; at the moment the animal was perceived to 

 be unable to rise, three vultures at the same instant de- 

 scended upon it, attracted no doubt by the cries of the dying 

 pig, and by the scent of its reeking blood, and while it was 

 yet struggling for life, began to tear open its wounds and de- 

 vour it. 



" These several instances, I think, abundantly shew that 

 all the senses are put in requisition by the John-Crow vulture 

 in its quest for food." 



From the facts thus presented by Mr Hill, we gather also, 

 that the common opinion is erroneous, which attributes to the 

 vulture a confinement of appetite to flesh in a state of decom- 

 position. Flesh is his food, and that te does not pounce 

 upon living prey like the falcons, is because his structure is 

 not adapted for predatory warfare, and not because he refuses 

 recent, and even living flesh, when in his power. If the John- 

 Crow vulture discovers a weakling new-born pig apart from 

 the rest, he will descend, and seizing it with his beak will 

 endeavour to drag it away : its cries of course bring the 

 mother, but before she can come, the vulture gives it a severe 

 nip across the back, which soon ensures the pig for his own 

 maw. If a large hog be lying in a sick condition beneath a 

 tree, the vulture will not hesitate to pick out its eyes, having 

 first muted upon the body, that it may discover whether the 

 animal be able to rise ; the contact of the hot faeces arous- 

 ing the hog if he be not too far gone. Cattle also he will 

 attack under similar circumstances. One of my servants once 

 saw a living dog partly devoured by one. The dogs of the 

 negroes, half-starved at home, " bony, and gaunt, and grim," 

 if they discover carrion, will gorge themselves until they can 

 hardly stir, when they lie down and sleep with death-like in- 

 tensity. A large dog thus gorged was sleeping under a tree, 

 when a John- Crow descended upon him, perhaps attracted by 

 the smell of the carrion which the dog had been devouring. 



