19 2o J Beck, The Occult Senses in Birds. 57 



smell. But the most striking observation — and the one which 

 most strongly leads him toward a belief in a definite food finding 

 sense — is an incident the facts of which are as follows : 



At daybreak, January 1st, two hunters, one of them the writer, 

 were out with their pack of foxhounds in the fanning valley of the 

 Little Conestoga south of Lititz, Lancaster County, Pa. The bot- 

 tom was bare of snow though it was gray white with a heavy frost. 

 The morning was quiet, practically windless, and the temperature 

 was about 28 degrees — just cold enough to keep the ground firm. 

 The scene had in it all the charm that attends starting a fox at 

 winter sunrise. The voices of the hounds on the twisted night 

 track were rapidly going up toward the happy burst that would tell 

 of jumping the fox — when something went wrong. The music 

 changed its tone and the younger hounds began to straggle in 

 toward the horses; and then with the rest of the pack, and striking 

 right and left among the hounds, came the cause of the breakup — 

 a mad dog. 



To borrow a gun, kill the dog, and throw his carcass into a lime- 

 stone sinkhole was the work of about half an hour. It was then 

 nine o'clock. Three hours later, at the request of a local veteri- 

 narian who wished to examine the dog, I returned to get the carcass. 

 As I neared the hole two vultures climbed out and flapped away. 

 They had been at the dog evidently some time for the flesh about 

 the hams was much eaten away. 



There were two unusual features in the situation which, as the 

 mind dwelt upon them, made the presence of those vultures in the 

 sinkhole most impressive if not uncanny. 



The first of these was that there was no winter camp of the vul- 

 tures nearer than the southern slope of the South Mountan — 

 eight miles north of the spot. This roost, above the Speedwell- 

 farms, always had fifty to a hundred birds about it and the vultures 

 apparently stayed near the South Mountain. I have rarely, if 

 ever, seen vultures ranging in the Little Conestoga valley during 

 the winter, before or since the incident. 



The second was that the dog was invisible from any part of the 

 sky. The sinkhole was six or seven feet deep with an opening of 

 about three feet. The shaft, inclined toward the south, went down 

 at an angle of about 45 degrees and the walls were so irregular with 



