THROUGH WILD EUROPE 27 



strong enough for the Vultures to be able to find 

 it. This belief is very common, that the Vultures 

 find their food by smell. It has, of course, been 

 proved beyond question that they do so by sight 

 alone. 



Indeed it was most noticeable that, every time I 

 tried putting out a bait it was invariably discovered 

 by a Griffon before I had finished concealing the 

 camera ; and perhaps that is why they refused to 

 approach it. At this place also the Egyptian 

 Vultures settled on the ground close to the bait 

 without touching it. 



One day, while wading in the marsh, a large 

 number of Griffons were observed in the air at a 

 little distance : there must have been some hundreds 

 of them. Thinking that a carcase was probably 

 somewhere about, we left our search for Cranes' nests 

 and went off to investigate. Unfortunately, we had 

 noticed the birds just too late, for they had almost 

 demolished the carcase — that of a large pig — and 

 were rapidly departing. By the time I reached the 

 spot there was nothing left but the head, the back- 

 bone, and one or two of the legbones, which were 

 picked quite clean and bare. The rest had vanished. 

 Sitting round these scanty remains was a ring of 

 about thirty Griffons. There was a donkey feeding 

 near, and creeping up behind it with the camera 

 I was able to approach near enough to focus the 



