10 THE VULTURES. 



the two is not very clearly marked in the popular 

 mind. The translators of our Bible had no notion of 

 it. Modern natural history has disentangled the two 

 names and assigned them to two very different 

 families of birds, the distinction between which in its 

 essence is just this, that, while the eagle kills its prey, 

 the less impatient vulture waits decently till its time 

 comes to die. Popular sentiment persists in regard- 

 ing the former as the more noble, but there can be 

 no question which is the more useful. It is not easy 

 indeed to realise to oneself the extent and beneficence 

 of the work carried on throughout the length and 

 breadth of India, from year's end to year's end, by 

 the mighty race of vultures. Every day and all day 

 they are patrolling the sky at a height which brings 

 half a revenue district within their ken. The worn- 

 out bullock falls under the yoke, never to rise again, 

 and is dragged off the road and left ; or the old cow, 

 which has ceased to be profitable and has therefore 

 ceased to be fed, lies down in a ditch for the last time. 

 Before the life has left the old body some distant 

 " pater-roller " has seen it, and, with rigid wings 

 slightly curved, is sloping down at a rate which 

 wipes out five miles in a few seconds. A second sees 

 the first and, interpreting its action, follows with all 

 speed. A third pursues the second, and so on till, 

 out of a sky in which you could not have descried 

 two birds half an hour ago, thirty or forty dark forms 

 are converging on one spot. When they get right 

 over it, they descend in decreasing spirals and settle 

 at various distances and wait for the end like 

 American reporters. When the end comes, if you 

 tire squeamish or fastidious, go away. All that will 



