Their Keen-Sightedness 157 



want of another name, I shall call the "white-breasted 

 vulture." It is a little larger than the turkey- 

 buzzard, and its head is bare ; but it has white 

 feathers on its neck, breast, and wings. The spread 

 of the wings of the turkey-buzzard may be five feet 

 eight inches ; that of the other, six feet and a half. 

 The female turkey-buzzard has a head covered with 

 short, grayish feathers ; that of the white-breasted 

 vulture has a bald head. 



According to a somewhat widespread error, these 

 birds have a very keen scent, and by that means 

 discover their quarry ; the natives say even that they 

 guess where it is to be found. I have studied them a 

 long time to settle the question ; and I am persuaded 

 that they smell absolutely nothing, but that, in com- 

 pensation, they have an extraordinarily sharp eye. 

 The proof of this is that they never discover an 

 animal when you have taken care to hide it from 

 them by means of leaves or straw. Lions know this 

 so well that they drag the bodies of animals which 

 they cannot finish eating at night under dense 

 thickets, so that on the following day the vultures 

 will not forestall them. They soar at such a height 

 that the naked eye or the field -glass hardly dis- 

 tinguishes them ; but the smallest red ray or bleed- 

 ing debris makes them flock from all points of the 

 compass. 



There is another bird which feeds on carcases in 

 all stages of decomposition, the marabout, a wading 

 bird very common in certain regions, especially in flat 

 countries. It is to be found everywhere in the basin 



