THE VULTURE. 91 



bably having no great plenty even of the wretch- 

 ed food on which they subsist. 



In America they lead a life somewhat similar. 

 Wherever the hunters, who there only pursue 

 beasts for the skins, are found to go, these birds 

 are seen to pursue them. They still keep hover- 

 ing at a little distance ; and when they see the 

 beast flayed and abandoned, they call out to each 

 other, pour down upon the carcass, and in an in- 

 stant pick its bones as bare and clean as if they 

 had been scraped by a knife. 



At the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, they 

 seem to discover a still greater share of dexterity 

 in their methods of carving. " I have," says 

 Kolben, " been often a spectator of the manner 

 in which they have anatomized a dead body : I 

 say anatomized, for no artist in the world could 

 have done it more cleanly. They have a wonder- 

 ful method of separating the flesh from the bones, 

 and yet leaving the skin quite entire. Upon 

 coming near the carcass, one would not suppose 

 it thus deprived of its internal substance, till he 

 began to examine it more closely ; he then finds 

 it, literally speaking, nothing but skin and bone. 

 Their manner of performing the operation is 

 this : they first make an opening in the belly of 

 the animal, from whence they pluck out and 

 greedily devour the entrails ; then entering into 

 the hollow which they have made, they separate 

 the flesh from the bones, without ever touching 

 the skin. It often happens that an ox returning 

 home alone to its stall from the plough lies down 

 by the way j it is then, if the vultures perceive it, 



