70 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 



All the places round Cairo are filled with the 

 dead bodies of asses and camels ; and thousands 

 of these birds fly about and devour the carcasses, 

 before they putrify, and fill the air with noxious 

 exhalations." Belon observes, which proves their 

 prevalence there, that in Palestine they devour 

 an infinite number of mice, which would other- 

 wise be a great pest. The cognate tribe, the 

 eagles, though they are widely dispersed, have 

 their metropolis in more northern climates, and 

 are distinguished also from the vultures, by 

 making living animals chiefly their prey : for 

 this they are gifted with a wonderful acuteness 

 of sight, and indomitable strength of wing, and 

 of legs and talons, fitting them for astonishing 

 velocity of flight, and for resistless force, when 

 they attack and bear off their prey. As they 

 have no scent, their eyes are of infinite use, and 

 enable them to discern a small bird at an almost 

 incredible distance: and often to get a clearer 

 view and more extensive horizon, when they 

 leave their mountain aeries, they ascend to a 

 great height. M. Ramond, when he had as- 

 cended the highest peak of the Pyrenees, saw 

 an eagle soaring above him, flying directly in 

 the teeth of a violent south-wester, with incon- 

 ceivable velocity. 



Another genus of a tropical type, but not con- 

 fined to the tropics, forming a striking contrast 

 with the gigantic forms last adverted to, consists 



