452 THE EMPIRE OF THE AIR. 



wheu coiuparecl with the -i or 4 miles required l>y the vultures to study 

 their field of research ? 



We may safely conclude that the constant necessity for seeiug further 

 than other birds has caused them to ac<iuire in tlie oi<>an of vision a per- 

 fection not possessed by other birds. We must therefore be ourselves 

 invisible to be able to witness their extraordinary evolutions when 

 sailing-; or bettt-r still, we must seek tlumi in the primitive countries 

 where tliey have not yet learned to be atiaid of man, and even there 

 we should wear adress which shall not attract their attention, for other- 

 wise they will not come down to a meal. 



In order to see these birds. French observers nuist leave home. There^ 

 are no vultures nearer than the high plateaus of central Auvergne, the 

 Al]hs, and the Pyrenees, where there may be found (very rarely how- 

 ever) the (fyps orridcntali.s, which is — on a smalhn- scale. — the dupli- 

 cate of Gyps fiilriis. (»r tawny vulture of Africa. 



If chance does not l»ring to us one of the latter master soareis, we 

 nuist entice him : a dead carcass planted in some isolated sjjot is tlie 

 l)est means to attiact him. By crossing the Mediterranean to Algeria 

 one is certain, with a ]>ro])er bait, to see the bird, particularly in 

 the autumn; for it is rather an uncertain enterprise to endeavor to lind 

 him in northern Africa in <»ther months than Septeml)er, October, ami 

 November. There are undoubtedly a few at all seasons, Init it is only 

 during those three months that they are in considerable numbers; 

 either in consequence of their annual migrations from north to south, 

 or from other causes. In any case, even where there are many they are 

 not uniforndy abundant. Sometimes we may chance upon a Hock of a 

 hundred, and then remain for years without seeing them excejDt afar off. 



It is unfortunately an unknown bird to those interested in the prob- 

 lem of tiight, for not one person in a hundred has seen it in the air. In 

 Algeria, even in Cairo, (where there are some sailing over the city every 

 day during three months of the year,) most of the P]uropean residents 

 are unaware of their existence. But when tlui student takes the pains 

 to go where the bird is to be found; when he sees this great animal, large 

 as a sheep, ])aiufully rising from the ground with strokes upon the air 

 whose hissing is heard 300 yards away in the silence of the desert; 

 when he sees them afterwards describing their endless sweeps, he ap- 

 X)reciates this most interesting sight; every human being is chained to 

 the spot; even the Arab is stirred Avith emotion; for in this bird we 

 have found motion under a new aspect; it resembles as to majesty and 

 impressiveness the a(;tion of a locomotive at full speed. 



When we watch a martin Hashing through space we think of high 

 speed mechanism; wheu it is a snipe or a partridge which flies off, we 

 are reminded of the action of a released sirring; a gull suggests per- 

 l^etual motion or the endless sweep of a pendulum; but the view of the 

 great vulture in sailing flight inspires at once the desire for imitation; 

 it is a dirigible parachute which man may hojie to re-produce. 



