4 ACCIPITRES. VULTURID.E. 



where an animal had been slaughtered, and lodged 

 in the street, A Vulture beating about in search 

 of food, dashed in a slanting direction from a con- 

 siderable height, and just resting, without closing 

 his wings, snatched up the fresh piece of flesh, and 

 carried it off. 



" Here was the sense of sight unassisted by that 

 of smelling, for the meat was too recent to com- 

 municate any taint to the morning air, and the 

 Vulture stooped to it from a very far distance. 



" On another occasion very near to the time 

 when these facts attracted my notice, a dead rat 

 had been thrown out, early in the morning, into the 

 street, having been caught in the previous night. 

 Two Vultures sailing over head in quest of a morn- 

 ing meal, descended at the same time, stooping to 

 the dead rat, the one from the south, the other 

 from the north, and both seized the object of at- 

 traction at the same moment. 



" Here again was the vision, unaided by the 

 sensitiveness of the nostrils, directing two birds 

 with the same appetite, at the same moment, to 

 the same object. 



" For the next example, I am indebted to the 

 records of a Police Court. A clerk in the engi- 

 neer department at Up-park Camp, brought before 

 the magistrates of St. Andrew's, on the 20th 

 of January, 1840, a man who had been beset in 

 the night by the dogs of the barracks. The 

 poultry-yard had been repeatedly robbed ; and 

 this person was supposed to have been prowling 

 after the roost-fowls, at the time the dogs rose upon 



