The Natural History of Se I borne 377 



birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but why 

 they reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so 

 easily accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, 

 that the chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs again will not 

 devour the more rancid water- fowls, nor indeed the bones of 

 any wild fowls ; nor will they touch the foetid bodies of birds 

 that feed on offal and garbage ; and indeed there may be 

 somewhat of providential instinct in this circumstance of dis- 

 like ; for vultures,* and kites, and ravens, and crows, &c., were 

 intended to be messmates with dogs -f- over their carrion ; and 

 seem to be appointed by Nature as fellow-scavengers to remove 

 all cadaverous nuisances from the face of the earth. 



I am, &c. 



* Hasselquist, in his "Travels to the Levant," observes that the dogs 

 and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly intercourse as to 

 bring up their young together in the same place. + The Chinese word 

 for a dog to an European ear sounds like quihloh. 



