6 ACCIPITRES. — VULTURID^. 



" These several instances, I think, abundantly 

 shew that all the senses are put in requisition by 

 the John-crow Vulture in its quest for food." 



From the facts thus presented by Mr. Hill we 

 gather also, that the common opinion is erroneous, 

 which attributes to the Vulture a confinement of 

 appetite to flesh in a state of decomposition. Flesh 

 is his food ; and that he does not pounce upon 

 living prey like the falcons, is because his structure 

 is not adapted for predatory warfare, and not because 

 he refuses recent, and even living flesh, when in 

 his power. If the John-crow Vulture discovers a 

 weakling new-born pig apart from the rest, he 

 will descend, and seizing it with his beak, will 

 endeavour to drag it away; its cries of course bring 

 the mother, but before she can come, the Vulture 

 gives it a severe nip across the back, which soon 

 ensures the pig for his own maw. If a large hog 

 be lying in a sick condition beneath a tree, the 

 Vulture will not hesitate to pick out its eyes, 

 having first muted upon the body, that it may 

 discover whether the animal be able to rise ; the 

 contact of the hot faeces arousing the hog if he 

 be not too far gone. Cattle also he will attack 

 under similar circumstances. One of my servants 

 once saw a living dog partly devoured by one. The 

 dogs of the negroes, half-starved at home, " bony, 

 and gaunt, and grim," if they discover carrion, 

 will gorge themselves until they can hardly stir, 

 when they lie dov^n and sleep with death-like 

 intensity. A large dog thus gorged, was sleeping 

 under a tree, when a John-crow descended upon 



