480 



A HISTORY OF 



the devouring of all the carrion and filth of 

 that great city ; which might otherwise tend 

 to corrupt and putrefy the air. They are 

 commonly seen in company with the wild 

 dogs of the country, tearing a carcass very 

 deliberately together. This odd association 

 produces no quarrels; the birds and quadru- 

 peds seem to live amicably, and nothing but 

 harmony subsists between them. The won- 

 der is still the greater, as both are extremely 

 rapacious, and both lean and bony to a very 

 great degree; probably having no great plenty 

 even of the wretched food on which they 

 subsist. 



In America theylead a lifesomewhat similar. 

 Wherever the hunters, who there only pur- 

 sue beasts for the skins, are found to go, 

 these birds are seen to pursue them. They 

 still keep hovering at a little distance ; and 

 when they see the beast flayed and abandon- 

 ed, they call out to each other, pour down 

 upon the carcass, and, in an instant, pick its 

 bones as bare and clean as if they had been 

 scraped by a knife. 



At the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, they 

 seem to discover a still greater share of dex- 

 terity in their methods of carving. "I have," 

 says Kolben, " been often a spectator of tbe 

 manner in which they have anatomized a 

 dead body : I say anatomized ; for no artist 

 in the world could have done it more cleanly. 

 They have a wonderful method of separating 

 the flesh from the bones, and yet leaving the 

 skin quite entire. Upon coming near the 

 carcass, one would not suppose it thus de- 

 prived of its internal substance, till he began 

 to examine it more closely ; he then finds it, 

 literally speaking, nothing but skin and bone. 

 Their manner of performing the operation is 

 this : they first make an opening in the belly 

 of the animal, from whence they pluck out, 

 and greedily devour, the entrails: then enter- 

 ing into the hollow which they have made, 

 they separate the flesh from the bones, with- 

 out ever touching the skin. It often happens 

 that an ox returning home alone to its stall 

 from the plough, lies down by the way : it is 

 then, if the vultures perceive it, that they fall 

 with fury down, and inevitably devour the 

 unfortunate animal. They sometimes at- 

 tempt them grazing in the fields ; and 

 then, to the number of a hundred or 



more, make their attack all at once and 

 together." 



" They are attracted by carrion," says 

 Catesby, " from a very great distance. It is 

 pleasant to behold them, when they are thus 

 eating, and disputing for their prey. An 

 eagle generally presides at these entertain- 

 ments, and makes them all keep their distance 

 till he has done. They then full to with an 

 excellent appetite; and their sense of smel- 

 ling is so exquisite, that the instant a carcass 

 drops, we may see the vultures floating in the 

 air from all quarters, and come sousing on 

 their prey." It is supposed by some, that 

 (hey eat nothing that has life; but this is 

 only when they are not able ; for when they 

 can come at lambs, they show no mercy; and 

 serpents are their ordinary food. The man- 

 ner of those birds is to perch themselves, 

 several together, on the old pine and cypress- 

 trees ; where they continue all the morning, 

 for several hours, with their wings unfolded : 

 nor are they fearful of danger, but suffer peo* 

 pie to approach them very near, particularly 

 when they are eating. 



The sloth, the filth, and the voraciousness, 

 of these birds, almost exceeds credibility. 

 In the Brasils, where they are found in great 

 abundance, when they light upon a carcass, 

 which they have liberty to tear at their ease, 

 they so gorge themselves that they are unable 

 to fly ; but keep hopping along when they are 

 pursued. At all times, they are a bird of 

 slow flight, and unable readily to raise them- 

 selves from the ground ; but when they have 

 over-fed, they are then utterly helpless : but 

 they soon get rid of their burden; for they 

 have a method of vomiting up what they 

 have eaten, and then they fly off with greater 

 facility. 



It is pleasant, however, to be a spectator 

 of the hostilities between animals that are 

 thus hateful or noxious. Of all creatures, the 

 two most at enmity, is the vulture of Brasil, 

 and the crocodile. The female of this terri- 

 ble amphibious creature, which in the rivers 

 of that part of the world grows to the size of 

 twenty-seven feet, lays its eggs, to the num- 

 ber of one or two hundred, in the sands, on 

 the side of the river, where they are hatched 

 by the heat of the climate. For this purpose, 

 she takes every precaution to hide from all 



