JOHN-CROW VULTURE. 6 



this state of helplessness and inanition; by which 

 time the mass of meat and pot-herbs had putrefied. 

 The stench becoming very perceptible in the neigh- 

 bourhood, Vulture after Vulture as they sailed past 

 were observed always to descend to the cottage of 

 the German, and to sweep round, as if they had 

 tracked some putrid carcase, but failed to find ex- 

 actly where it was. This led the neighbours to ap- 

 prehend that the poor man lay dead in his cottage, 

 as no one had seen him for the two days last past. 

 His door was broken open ; he was found in a 

 state of helpless feebleness, but the room was most 

 insufferably offensive from something putrefying, 

 which could not immediately be found, for the fever 

 having deprived the German of his wits, he had 

 no recollection of his uncooked mess of meat and 

 herbs. No one imagining that the kitchen pot 

 could contain anything offensive, search was made 

 everywhere but in the right place : at last the pot- 

 lid was lifted, and the cause of the insupportable 

 stench discovered in the corrupted soup-meat. 



" Here we have the sense of smelling directing 

 the Vultures, without any assistance from the sense 

 of sight, and discovering unerringly the locality 

 of the putrid animal matter, when even the neigh- 

 bours were at fault in their patient search. 



" Some few days succeeding this occurrence, after 

 a night and morning of heavy rain, in which our 

 streets had been inundated to the depth of a foot, 

 and flood after flood had been sweeping to the river 

 the drainage of the whole town, a piece of recent 

 offal had been brought down from some of the yards 



B 2 



