THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 37 



prize. It would have taken a lapse of weeks to 

 have destroyed the smell putrescent which came 

 from the remains of so large an animal ; and even 

 granted that the vultures had been too dull of nose 

 to have smelled it, still it could not have failed to 

 have attracted other dogs, or the same dogs when 

 their stomachs had become empty ; and they them- 

 selves would have gnawed off all the flesh, and 

 squandered the bones, without allowing " natural 

 decay " to consume that which was so palatable to 

 them. Be this as it may, the author immediately 

 returned, and commenced a new operation about 

 the same place. This fortifies me in my conjecture, 

 that the carcass must have had some greedy cus- 

 tomers after the author's departure, otherwise the 

 insuf/erable smell must have been still there; and 

 then the author, by his own account, would have 

 been ill able to stand the attacks on his nasal feel- 

 ings during the new operation. 



He says, " I then took a young pig, put a knife 

 through its neck, and made it bleed on the earth and 

 grass about the same place, and, having covered it 

 closely with leaves, also watched the result. The vul- 

 tures saw the fresh blood, alighted about it, followed 

 it down into the ravine, discovered by the blood the 

 pig, and devoured it, when yet quite fresh, within my 

 sight." I must here own I am astonished that the 

 vultures could see this, and still have seen nothing 

 of the large hog while several dogs were feeding 

 on it. However, I request the reader to ruminate 

 for a while on these two experiments with the large 

 D 3 



