510 NATURAL HISTORY. 



food was a good one — until the subject was tested. Some of Audubon's 

 experiments were subsequently repeated by his fellow-laborer, the Rev. 

 John Buchman, who also added others. 



To show that sight was the sense depended upon, a stuffed deer, dry 

 and without a particle of odor about it, was placed in the position of death, 

 and only a few moments elapsed before a vulture was on hand, tugging 

 and pulling at the hide until he became disgusted. Again, a hastily painted 

 carcass, representing the body of a sheep deprived of its skin and with 

 its body cut open, was carried out into the open air, and proved a great 

 attraction to these birds ; and they tried their best to get at it, and to tear 

 it in pieces with their bills and claws. 



The experiments to show that smell was not the guide were equally 

 conclusive. The carcass of a hog, in a fairly putrid condition was con- 

 cealed under a pile of brush ; and although the vultures flew quite near, 

 they never discovered it. Again, a wheelbarrow-load of carrion, covered 

 with a sheet, was taken to the fields; and upon the sheet bits of fresh 

 meat were strewn. These the birds soon made way with ; but although 

 their bills were often separated from the carrion beneath the sheet by but 

 the thickness of the cloth, they utterly failed to find it, and showed no 

 unmistakable signs that they recognized its presence anywhere in the 

 neighborhood. 



There is a little evidence on the other side which must not be neglected. 

 Best is the testimony of Mr. Richard Hill of Jamaica. In this case a poor 

 German, living by himself, fell sick with a fever after he had placed meat 

 and vegetables in a pot for a stew. For two days he lay senseless ; and 

 the meat putrefied. "Vulture after vulture as they sailed past were 

 observed always to descend to the cottage of the German, and to sweep 

 round, as if they had tracked some putrid carcass, but failed to find exactly 

 where it was." Again. Waterton in South America killed lizards and frogs 

 and put them in the way of the buzzards ; but they did not appear to 

 notice them until they became putrid. 



Still, if they are guided by scent, why is it that they are not continu- 

 ally chasing each other ; for all agree that the smell of carrion is not 

 much worse than the odor of these birds, which Pennant says, "are most 

 unpleasantly foetid." 



There are vultures in the Old World, but they are much different from 

 tlmse of America. In fact, they are merely eagles, modified for a diet of 

 carrion. They have the same bare head, the same weak claws, as do their 

 representatives with us. In the warmer parts of their country they act as 

 scavengers, just as the carrion-crow and the turkey-buzzard do with us; 

 and, in short, their habits are so much alike that it would be but mere 



