608 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
will always cast an odium on its name. ‘ Vultures,” says he, “ are 
actuated by nothing but a degraded instinct of gluttony and greedi- 
ness. They will never contend with the living if they can glut their 
appetites on the dead. The Eagle.attacks its enemies or its victims 
face to face; it pursues them, fights them, and seizes them by its 
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Fig. 284.—The Fulvous Vulture. 
. 
own individual prowess. Vultures, on the contrary, however slight 
may be the resistance which they anticipate, combine in flocks like 
cowardly assassins, and are rather thieves than warriors—birds of 
carnage rather than birds of prey ; for these are the only birds which 
are so madly devoted to carrion that they pick the very bones of 
a decaying carcase. Corruption and infection seem to attract 1n- 
stead of repelling them.” Further on, too, he adds, “ In comparing 
