CHAPTER XVI. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 

 Sight or Scent Ravens Vultures. 



IT has long been a vexed question among 

 naturalists whether vultures discover their prey by 

 sight or scent. I do not pretend for a moment 

 that I have had better opportunities of judging than 

 other people, or that I possess more discrimination. 

 Only this I will say, that, in my belief, it is upon 

 the organ of sight they depend for their food, 

 and not upon their sense of smell. It must not 

 be understood from this that I think vultures 

 destitute of scent ; but I do think that in them 

 the sense is not excessively developed. I have 

 known a large animal, such as a wildebeest or 

 buffalo, shot in thick brushwood, where there 

 was only an occasional scattering of trees, remain 

 for a day without being detected by the vultures, 



