34 



THE KING VULTURE — GRIFFON VULTURE. 



In anatomizing a dead animal, Kolben informs us that these birds 

 exliibit infinite dexterity. They separate the flesh from the bones in 

 such a manner as to leave the skin almost entire. On apjiroaching a 

 body thus destroye(J, no per.son, till he had examined it, could possibly 

 imagine that it was merely bone and skin, deprived entirely of the in- 

 ternal substance. They begin by tearing an opening in the belly, 

 through which they pluck out and greedily devour the entrails: ihea 

 enteiing the hollow, they also tear away all the flesh ; and this without 



KING OF VULTURES. 



affecting the external appearance. " It often happens (says this writer) 

 that an ox returning home alone to his stall from the plough, lies down 

 by the way ; it is then, if the Vultures perceive it, that they fall upon it 

 with fury, and inevitably devour the unfortunate animal. They 

 sometimes attempt the oxen while grazing in the fields ; and, to the 

 numxber of a hundred or more, make their sudden attack all together." 

 Ravenous as these animals are, they are capable of existing for a 

 great length of time without food. In the deserts their subsistence ia 

 Bometimcs very precarious. M. Le Yaillant states that in the crop of 

 dome that he had killed, he had found nothing but pieces of bark, or 

 a small quantity pf clay ; in the crop of others he had found only bones ; 

 and again, of others, the dung of animals. "When urged by hunger, 

 they are frequently known to devour their own species. 



