6o8 



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 



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 in- 

 stead of repelling them." Further on, too, he adds, " In comparing 



