THE VULTURES. 43 



Before quitting this subject, I may mention that Audubon, 

 in his " Birds of America " insists, and rightly too, that it is the 

 organs of sight — not those of smell — that enable vultures and 

 other birds of prey to discover carcases at such immense dis- 

 tances as they do. He says — " We were led to question the 

 accuracy of this opinion on the observations of some travellers, 

 who remarked birds of prey directing their course towards dead 

 animals floating in the rivers of India, where the wind blows 

 steadily from one point in the compass for many months in 

 succession. It is not easy to conceive the effluvia from a dead 

 carcase in the water should proceed in direct opposition to the 

 current of air and affect the olfactory nerves of birds at so many 

 miles distant." In order to satisfy himself on this point he 

 (Audubon) " made several experiments, one of which was — he 

 stuffed and dried the skin of a deer, exposed, and retired from it. 

 A vulture soon approached, attacked its eyes (which were 

 made of painted clay), then walked to the other extremity, tore, 

 some of the stitches, until much of the fodder and hay with 

 which it was stuffed was pulled out ; and, after repeated attempts 

 to discover flesh, took to flight. Afterwards, he had a large 

 dead hog put into a ravine, and concealed it in the briars. 

 He saw many vultures pass over it, but some approached it after 

 several dogs made a meal of it. He then tried to approach 

 it himself, but found the stench too intolerable, and had to 

 retire." So that, if scent was all that led the vulture to its 

 putrefying food, this hog might have been consumed by maggots 

 for all that vultures knew. I can so far corroborate this from 

 personal observation at the side of Loch Brora. A gamekeeper 

 showed me the carcase of a large red-deer stag, about twenty 

 stone weight, which had lain there under the trees for several 

 days, in April 1881, close to Carrol Eock, where about a 

 dozen ravens roosted every night. It lay untouched because 

 unseen amongst the underwood ; it had a very strong scent, but 

 would not have lain a single day untouched if exposed to their 

 piercing eyes on the open hills. Even Job, in the sublime old 

 drama of that name, says — " There is a path which no fowl 

 knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." Some 

 authors, however, maintain that the vulture finds out carrion 

 lying in the midst of dense forests where the eye could not 

 penetrate. But, as to this, I cannot speak from my own 

 experience, which, after all, is the chief feature of my little 

 book. 



