2 VULTURID^. 



which, owing to the rapid decomposition of carrion, the 

 providence of God has stocked with carnivorous animals 

 of great voracity. In these the Vulture is ever at hand to 

 execute its useful and wholesome, but to us unsavoury, work 

 of a scavenger. Endowed with great power of wing, it is 

 enabled to attain a lofty elevation in the air, and thus em- 

 bracing an extended circle of vision, it can call into exer- 

 cise its intensely acute sight, by which it discerns at a great 

 distance the bodies of dead or dying animals, towards 

 which it rapidly proceeds and descends in circles. Some 

 naturalists are of opinion that it is by the aid of an acute 

 scent rather than of vision that the Vulture detects its prey. 

 Without going into the arguments for and against this 

 theory, we will only remark that if the bird were guided 

 to its prey by scent, it would probably skim along 

 the ground, where that sense would be most available, 

 rather than adopt a soaring mode of flight, which, though 

 eminently calculated for extensive vision, must certainly 

 render less effective its powers of scent. 



It has been well observed too that the Vulture, when 

 performing its lofty flights, is employed not only in search- 

 ing for food but in watching the movements of its con- 

 geners, and when any one of them descends on a discovered 

 prey, the movement serves as an intimation of the fact 

 to all other Vultures which may happen to be in sight. 

 The suddenly accelerated flight of these is observed by 

 yet more distant birds, which, thus summoned as it were 

 by telegraphic signs, fly to a common centre in an 

 incredibly short space of time. 



The Vulture, being no combatant, is ill provided with 

 weapons of offence. Voracity, not pugnacity, is its charac- 

 teristic. The beak and talons arc nearly straight, and 

 hooked at the end only. They are therefore unsuited for 

 carrying off prey. The appetite, however, of the bird is 

 enormous, and the capacious craw being elastic can contain 

 a proportionate quantity of food, which the bird disgorges 



