420 • A VES— VULTURE. 



after it has sated its appetite, during the day. At sunrise, large bands are 

 seen perched on the rocks at the entrance of their abodes, and sometimes a 

 continued chain of mountains exhibits them dispersed throughout the greater 

 part of its extent. Their tails are always worn down by friction against the 

 stones between which they thrust themselves, or on which they perch ; 

 while the eagles, seldom walking and frequently perching upon trees, pre- 

 serve theirs more entire. Those of the vultures are moreover injured by the 

 soil of the plains, inasmuch as they cannot raise themselves into the air at 

 once, but only after running several paces forwards and by a forced con- 

 traction of the limbs. The flight of the vulture is nevertheless no less 

 powerful and lofty ; they raise themselves to a prodigious height, and disap- 

 pear entirely from the sight. 



It is scarcely to be conceived how these birds, which often cannot be dis- 

 tinguished in the air, can themselves perceive what is going on, on the 

 surface of the earth, discover the animals on which they feed, and fall upon 

 them the moment they are overtaken by death. When a hunter kills a 

 large animal which he cannot immediately remove, if he abandon it for an 

 instant, he finds on his return a band of vultures, where a quarter of an hour 

 before not one was to be seen. Our author gives the particulars of several 

 adventures of this kind that had befallen himself; and offers an explanation 

 of the manner in which the vultures are enabled to detect their prey, strictly 

 ill accordance with the theory of Mr Audubon, to which Ave have before ad- 

 verted. We quote this explanation at length, without, however, adopting 

 the hypotheses which it involves. 



" Desirous of observing," he says, " how so great a number of vultures 

 could congregate together in so short a space of time, I concealed myself one 

 day in a thicket, after having killed a large gazelle, which I left upon the 

 spot. In an instant a number of ravens made their appearance, fluttering 

 about the animal, and making a great croaking. In less than half a quarter 

 of an hour these birds were reinforced by the arrival of kites and buzzards ; 

 and immediately afterwards I perceived on raising my head, a flight of birds 

 at a prodigious height, wheeling round and round in their descent. These 

 I soon recognised to be vultures, which seemed, if I may so express myself, 

 to escape from a cavern in the sky. The first comers fell immediately upon 

 the gazelle, but I did not allow them time to tear it in pieces. I left my 

 concealment, and they betook themselves slowly and heavily to flight, re- 

 joining their comrades, whose numbers continued to increase. They seemed 

 almost to precipitate themselves from the clouds to share the spoil, but my 

 presence caused them speedily to disappear. Thus it is then, that the vul- 

 tures are called upon to participate in their prey; the first carnivorous birds 

 that discover a carcass rouse the others which may happen to be in the 

 environs by their cries and motions. If the nearest vulture does not spy 

 the prey from the lofty region of the air in which he swims, by means of his 

 wide spread wings, he perceives the subaltern and more terrestrial birds of 



