THE VULTURE. 113 



most insufferably offensive from something putrefying, which 

 could not for a length of time be found ; for the fever having 

 nearly deprived the poor man of his senses, he had no recol- 

 lection of his uncooked mess of meat and herbs, and as no 

 one thought that the kitchen pot could contain anything likely 

 to produce putrefaction, search was made everywhere but in 

 the right place. At last, however, the pot-lid was lifted, and 

 the cause of the insupportable stench discovered in the 

 corrupted soup-meat. Here we have, then, clearly proved that 

 the sense of smelling directed the Vultures, without any 

 assistance from the sense of sight, in discovering unerringly 

 the locality of the putrid matter, when even the neighbours 

 themselves were unable for some time to detect it. 



A few days succeeding this occurrence, after a night and 

 morning of heavy rain, in which the streets had been inun- 

 dated to the depth of a foot, and flood after flood had been 

 sweeping to the river the drainage of the whole town, a piece 

 of fresh offal had been brought down from some of the yards 

 where an animal had been slaughtered, and lodged in the 

 street. A Vulture, beating about in search of food, dashed 

 down in a slanting direction from a considerable height, and 

 just resting, without closing her wings, snatched up the fresh 

 piece of flesh, and carried it off. Here was the sense of sight 

 clearly unassisted by that of smelling, for the meat was too 

 fresh to communicate any taint to the morning air, and the 

 Vulture stooped to it from a great distance. 



On another occasion, very near to the time when the above 

 two facts occurred, a dead rat had been thrown out early in 

 the morning into the street, having been caught in the night. 

 Two Vultures sailing overhead, in quest of a morning meal, 

 descended at the same time, stooping to the dead rat, the one 

 from the north, the other from the south, both seizing the 

 object of attraction at the same moment. 



Jn the last instance, the three senses of smelling, seeing, 

 and hearing, were comparatively equally concerned, though 

 not under the influence of the usual appetite for carrion food, 

 as the object was a living, though wounded, animal. A person 



H 



