34 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



" follow the hunters, especially those whose object 

 is only to procure the skins ; these people neglect 

 the carcasses, which would rot on the spot, and infect 

 the air, but for the assistance of these birds, which 

 no sooner perceive a flayed body, than they call to 

 each other and pour upon it like vultures, and in an 

 instant devour the flesh, and leave the bones as clear 

 as if they had been scraped with a knife. The 

 Spaniards, who are settled upon the large islands, 

 and upon the continent, as well as the Portuguese, 

 who inhabit those tracts where they traffic in hides, 

 receive great benefit from these birds, by their de- 

 vouring the dead bodies and preventing infection ; 

 and therefore they impose a fine upon those who 

 destroy them. This protection has extremely multi- 

 plied this disgusting kind of turkey*/' 



But it may be remarked, that in all the accounts 

 given of these gregarious vultures, nothing is said of 

 their appointing a sentinel -like the mountain-sheep, 

 or like several species of birds to which we shall 

 presently attend. For this, however, there is the 

 obvious reason, that the vultures have no formidable 

 enemies, being protected by man to serve his con- 

 venience, besides that, like the mole, they seem to 

 be too disgusting to be preyed upon by any animal. 

 The colonists, indeed, have tried every device to render 

 the flesh palatable ; but though they have cut off 

 the rump and extracted the entrails, the instant the 

 birds have been killed they still retain an insupport- 

 able odour of carrion which nothing can remove f. 

 This is not all ; for they have also a singular manner 

 of defending themselves if they happen to be attacked. 

 " A man in the State of Delaware," says Mr. Ord, 

 " a few years since, observing some Turkey buzzards 

 regaling themselves upon the carcass of a horse, 

 which was in a highly putrid state, conceived the 



* Quoted by Buffon. t Desmarchats, as above. 



