CHAP. VI. INJURIES FROM BIRDS. 191 



time into eternity."* There is, obviously, much ex- 

 aggeration in the latter part of this story, although the 

 common people in Brazil assured us that deaths some- 

 times followed these bleedings. We never experienced 

 these attacks upon our persons; but our horses and 

 mules,, upon being turned out to graze for the night, 

 were frequently brought into the camp in the morning 

 covered with blood. 



(206.) We now turn to BIRDS. Among this charming 

 portion of Nature's works, notwithstanding the vast su- 

 periority they possess over quadrupeds in point of num- 

 bers, we find very few, if any, which are decided foes 

 to man. They almost seem created, in short, for our 

 solace; to give life, buoyancy, and animation to the 

 face of nature ; to enliven our spirits by their de- 

 lightful song, their varied colours, their light and aerial 

 movements, and their innocent occupations. True it 

 is, that even among these we find a race, cruel and 

 bloodthirsty, fit types of those formidable carnivorous 

 quadrupeds of which we have lately treated, and repre- 

 senting, like them, the fierce and malignant beings of 

 our own race. But the eagles, vultures, and falcons 

 confine their depredations to the animal world, only 

 feeding upon man when life is extinct, and when the 

 removal of his inanimate body is not only desirable, 

 but beneficial. It has ever been the propensity of the 

 vulgar to attach great power and destructiveness to 

 animals of large size or uncommon strength : hence we 

 may trace the marvellous stories of the gigantic vultures 

 mentioned in Arabian tales ; and the superstitious be- 

 lief, which formerly prevailed, that the immense condor 

 of South America not only flew away with young 

 children, but would attack travellers, and pick out their 

 eyes. Baron Ilumboldt, however, who gave us the first 

 authentic accounts of the manners of these birds, declares 

 that, after the most diligent inquiry, he never dis- 

 covered a single instance of a condor having taken off a 

 child ; nos, indeed, that the strength of this powerful 



* Stedman's Surinam. 



