CH. XXXI. CARRION-FEEDING BIRDS. 171 



trout, excepting that the tern uses its sharp-pointed 

 bill instead of its feet. I have often taken up the 

 sand-eels which the terns have dropped on being 

 alarmed, and have invariably found that the little 

 fish had but one small wound, immediately behind 

 the head. That a bird should catch such a little, 

 slippery, active fish as a sand-eel, in the manner in 

 which a tern catches it, seems almost inconceivable ; 

 and yet every dweller on the sea-coast sees it done 

 every hour during the period that these birds fre- 

 quent our shores. In nature nothing is impossible ; 

 and when we are talking of habits and instincts, 

 no such word as impossibility should be used. 



I never could quite understand the instinct 

 which leads carrion -feeding birds to their food. 

 We frequently see ravens, buzzards, and other birds 

 of similar habits congregating round the dead body 

 of an animal almost immediately after it has ceased 

 to live ; and therefore I cannot agree with those 

 naturalists who assert that it is the sense of smell- 

 ing which leads these birds to their feast. From 

 my own observation I am convinced that this is 

 not the case, as I have known half-a-dozen buzzards 

 collect round a dead cat on the afternoon of the 

 same day on which it had been killed, and this, 

 too, during the winter season, when the dead 

 animal could have emitted no odour strong enough 



