32 HABITS OP BIRDS. 



animals killed whereof they do not obtain the offals ; 

 and when this food is wanting, they have recourse 

 to other garbage. Their sense of smelling is so 

 acute, that it enables them to trace carrion at the 

 distance of three or four leagues ; which they do not 

 abandon till there remains nothing but the skeleton*." 

 The following account of the same bird is in Wilson's 

 best mariner. It is dated Hampstead, near Charles* 

 ton, Feb. 21, 1809. 



" A horse had dropped down in the street in con- 

 vulsions, and dying, it was dragged out to Hamp- 

 stead and skinned. The ground for a hundred yards 

 around it was black with carrion crows ; many sat 

 on the tops of sheds, fences, and houses within sight; 

 sixty or eighty on the opposite side of a small run. 

 I counted at one time two hundred and thirty-seven, 

 but I believe there were more, besides several in the 

 air over my head, and at a distance. I ventured 

 cautiously within thirty yards of the carcass, where 

 three or four dogs and twenty or thirty vultures 

 were busily tearing and devouring. Seeing them 

 take no notice I ventured nearer, till I was within 

 ten yards, and sat down on the bank. Still they 

 paid little attention to me. The dogs being some- 

 times accidentally flapped with the wings of the vul- 

 tures, would growl and snap at them, which would 

 occasion them to spring up for a moment, but they 

 immediately gathered in again. I remarked, the 

 vultures frequently attack each other, fighting with 

 their claws or heels, striking like a cock, with open 

 wings, and fixing their claws in each other's head. 

 The females, and I believe the males likewise, made 

 a hissing sound, with open mouth, exactly resem- 

 bling that produced by thrusting a red-hot poker 

 into water; and frequently a snuffling, like a dog 

 clearing his nostrils, as, I suppose, they were theirs. 



* Voyage, Hist, de I'Amer, Merid. i. 52. 4to. Amst., 1752. 



