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with the wild dogs of the country, tearing a carcase very deii- 

 oeratcly together. This odd association produced no quarrels ; 

 the birds and quadrupeds seem to live amicably, and nothing but 

 harmony subsists between them. The wonder is still the greater, 

 as both are extremely rapacious, and both lean and bony to a 

 very great degree ; probably having no great plenty even of the 

 wretched food on which they subsist. 



In America they lead a life somewhat similar. AVherever the 

 hunters, who there only pursue beasts for the skins, are found 

 to go, these birds are seen to pursue them. They still keep 

 hovering at a little distance ; and when they see the beast flayed 

 and abandoned, they call out to each other, pour down upon the 

 carcase, and, in an instant, pick its bones as bare and clean as if 

 they had been scraped by a knife. 



At the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, they seem to discovei 

 a still greater share of dexterity in their methods of carving. 

 " I have," says Kolben, " been often a spectator of the manner 

 in which they have anatomized a dead body : I say anatomiaed ; 

 for no artist in the world could have done it more cleanly. They 

 have a wonderful method of separating the flesh from the bones, 

 and yet leaving the skin quite entire. Upon coming near the 

 carcase, one would not suppose it thus deprived of its internal 

 substance, till he began to examine it more closely ; he then finds 

 it, literally speaking, nothing but skin and bone. Their manner 

 of performing the operation is this : they first make an opening 

 in the belly of the animal, from whence they pluck out, and 

 greedily devour, the entrails : then entering into the hollow 

 which they have made, they separate the flesh from the bones, 

 without ever touching the skin. It often happens that an ox re- 

 turning home alone to its stall from the plough, lies down by the 

 way : it is then, if the vultures perceive it, that they fall with 

 fury down, and inevitably devour the unfortunate .iiiimal. They 

 sometimes attempt them grazing in the fields ; and then to the 

 number of a hundred or more, make their attack all at once and 

 together." 



" They are attracted by carrion," says Catesby, " from a very 

 great distance. It is pleasant to behold them, when they are 

 thus eating and disputing for their prey. An eagle generally 

 presides at these entertainments, and makes them all keep theii 

 distance till he has done. They then fall to with an excellent 



