BOOK IIL CHAP. VIII. 891 



for breath, and its eyes ftill riveted with infatiable defire upon the 

 filthy remnants; like thofe human Epicures, who, after fluffing 

 themfelvcs up to the very top of the gullet with turtle or venifon, 

 have loft the power of returning to the charge, yet retain an una- 

 bated craving for the fcraps and offals ftill in view. It is a mofl 

 wonderful mechanifm, that its ftomach is capable of refolving fuch 

 rotten fubftances into wholefome nouriflTiment. Experiments have 

 (hewn the antifeptic power of the bark, ading by its ftipticity on 

 the fibres of putrid tlefli, and difcharging it of its fator within <i 

 certain degree of corruption ; but no material is hitherto dilcovered 

 capable of fweetening, and reftoring the cohefion of, parts, where 

 the flefli is abfolutely decompofed, and reduced by putrefaction into 

 a kind of loofe pulp: yet the carrion-crows often devour it in this 

 ftate, and confequently fecrete in their ftomachs fome liquor of a 

 peculiar quality, which alters the mafs received into them in fuch 

 a manner, as to extrad a nutrimental chyle from it, even when it 

 is fuperlatively foetid and corrupt. 



Thefe birds may juftly be ftiled the living fepulchres of departed 

 beafts, and execute that office without-doors which the rats and 

 cockroaches perform within. If it were not for their beneficial af- 

 fiftance, it would be impoffible to inhabit the South-fide of this 

 ifland during the time of fevere droughts ; when fodder becomes 

 fo fcarce, that numbers of the working beafts, impoveriffied by hard 

 labour in the courfe of the crop, perifh under every hedge^ and fb 

 faft, that it is impoflible to bury their carcafes. Some men like- 

 wife are fo fhamefully inattentive to the public health at fuch times, 

 that they will often leave the carcafes {linking above ground, and 

 infedling the air, rather than be at the pains of caufing any of 

 them to be burnt or interred. The crows hold their jubilee on thefe 

 occafions ; and every day prefents them with a new feaft, which 

 they never quit till they have reduced the carcafe to a fkeleton. 



They are alfo very ferviceable in the towns, where they are fo 

 tame, that they may be feen every day perching upon the houfes, 

 like pigeons, and alighting in the very ftreets. In Kingfton, in par- 

 ticular, they may be remarked ; and are undoubtedly attraited by 

 the putrid fmell of fowl and fiffi-guts, or other ofi^als, which are 

 careleffly thrown into the flreets and yards, or on dung-heaps. 



5X2 In 



