BIRDS OF PREY 279 



to the little birds seem all the more wonderful. The sparrows seem 

 to know that they are safe from the claws of the eagle, even though 

 they are living in his eyrie, and they know equally well that while they 

 are there, they are safe from pursuit by the swift sailing sparrow- 

 hawk and falcon. Therefore they choose an eyrie for their nesting 

 place. In one eyrie not less than fifty-two sparrow nests were found, 

 which shows at the same time the friendliness of the eagle and the 

 size of his fortress. 



The Kite is common in Africa, and it is, like the hawk, a bird 

 of prey, resembling the latter in its forked tail and its manner of 

 flying. It builds its nest on sticks in a large tree, and occasionally on 

 rocks. It feeds on moles, frogs, rabbits, snakes, and fish. The length 

 of the bird is about two feet. 



The Vulture. — Even those birds, it is found, which, like the 

 vultures, feed upon putrid flesh, and seldom kill prey for themselves, 

 find their food far more by sight than by sense of smell. In order to 

 prove this fact a gentleman placed a large piece of carrion upon the 

 ground, and covered it over with grass; the odor was most offensive, 

 and yet not a vulture noticed it, although several were not very far 

 away. He then removed a part of the grass, whereupon the birds 

 caught sight of the carrion at once, and flocked to the spot as soon as 

 he retired, thus showing that their sight, and not their scent, had 

 warned them of the presence of their food. 



It seems almost certain, too, that these birds not onlv search 

 for food themselves, but also watch one another meanwhile, so that if 

 one more fortunate than his fellows should espy a dead animal, all 

 those within sight of -him notice him descend to the feast, and hurry 

 to the spot in order to obtain a share in the banquet. These, in their 

 turn, again, are being watched by others, which follow them; so a 

 constant succession of vultures is attracted to the carcass, until it is 

 completely devoured. In this manner during the Crimean War, when 

 the battlefields were strewn with the bodies of men and horses, almost 

 every vulture for hundreds of miles around was attracted so that the 

 usual haunts of the birds were almost entirely deserted. This could 

 hardly have happened had they depended upon their sense of scent 

 and not upon their keenness of sight ; and we can only account for it 



