232 THE WORLD'S LUMBER ROOM. 



abouts to the fishermen ; but should a dead whale chance to 

 be stranded anywhere, they cannot make much impression 

 on the carcass till some more powerful bills have torn away 

 the skin. 



In New Jersey, the black-headed gull haunts the neigh- 

 bourhood of farmhouses and river banks, picking up garbage 

 and other refuse of the fishermen ; and about the middle of 

 May great multitudes assemble in the Delaware Bay to 

 feed on the remains of the king-crabs left by the hogs. 



Gulls (Fig. 49) are the vultures of the ocean, and besides 

 keeping careful watch over the labours of whalers and fisher- 

 men may be seen in numbers following a shoal of porpoises 

 and picking up the bitten and wounded fishes, which the 

 porpoises themselves have not time to do when going full 

 chase after their prey. 



Vultures, though chiefly frequenting warm countries, are 

 found more or less all over the world, and, though most of 

 them are disgusting in their ways and unpleasant both to sight 

 and smell, are almost everywhere protected in civilised 

 countries for the sake of the great services they render. 



In the south of Europe they are kept in the market- 

 places, as storks are in Holland, and for the same purpose 

 to eat up the garbage; and, being protected by heavy 

 penalties, are extremely familiar and independent; and at 

 Natchez swarm in such numbers that all the refuse of the 

 place is not enough to feed them. 



The vultures, indeed, do their scavenging on a more 

 extensive scale than either the dogs of Constantinople or 

 the storks of India and Holland. 



The largest of all the vultures are the Great Bearded 



