THIRD JOURNEY. 181 



frogs ; I have watched them for hours together, but 

 never could see them touch any living animals, though 

 innumerable lizards, frogs, and small birds swarmed all 

 around them. I have killed lizards and frogs, and put 

 them in a proper place for observation ; as soon as they 

 began to stink, the aura vulture invariably came and 

 took them off. I have frequently observed, that the 

 day after the planter had burnt the trash in a cane-field, 

 the aura vulture was sure to be there, feeding on the 

 snakes, lizards, and frogs which had suffered in the 

 conflagration. I often saw a large bird (very much 

 like the common gregarious vulture at a distance) catch 

 and devour lizards ; after shooting one, it turned out 

 to be not a vulture, but a hawk, with a tail squarer and 

 shorter than hawks have in general. The vultures, 

 like the goatsucker and woodpecker, seem to be in dis- 

 grace with man. They are generally termed a voracious, 

 stinking, cruel, and ignoble tribe. Under these im- 

 pressions, the fowler discharges his gun at them, and 

 probably thinks he has done well in ridding the earth 

 of such vermin. 



Some governments impose a fine on him who kills a 

 vulture. This is a salutary law, and it were to be 

 wished that other governments would follow so good 

 an example. I would fain here say a word or two in 

 favour of this valuable scavenger. 



Kind Providence has conferred a blessing on hot 

 countries in giving them the vulture ; he has ordered 

 it to consume that which, if left to dissolve in putre- 

 faction, would infect the air and produce a pestilence. 

 When full of food, the vulture certainly appears an 

 indolent bird ; he will stand for hours together on the 

 branch of a tree, or on the top of a house, with his 



