666 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I/QO. 



in procuiing food, a power of seeing at great distances. That birds of prey see 

 objects distinctly at a great distance appears to be proved by the following obser- 

 vations. In the year 1778, Mr. Baber and several other gentlemen were on a 

 hunting party in the island of Cassiinbiisar in Bengal, about 15 miles north of 

 Marshedabad ; they killed a wild hog of an uncommon size, and left it on the 

 ground near their tent. About an hour after it was killed they were walking 

 near the spot where it lay ; the sky was perfectly clear, not a cloud to be seen, 

 and a dark spot in the air at a great distance attracted their notice; it appeared 

 gradually to increase in size, and moved directly towards them : as it advanced 

 it proved to be a vulture, flying in a direct line to the dead animal, on which it 

 alighted, and began to feed voraciously. In less than an hour, JO other vul- 

 tures came in all directions, some horizontally, but most of them from the upper 

 regions of the air, in which a few minutes before nothing could be seen. Mr. 

 Baber was so much struck with the circumstance at the moment, that he said to 

 his friends, Milton's poetical description of the vulture, being lured to its prey 

 by the smell, would not apply to what they had just seen. 



Volney, in his travels through Egypt, mentions a circumstance somewhat si- 

 milar, he says, " the conspicuous situation of Aleppo brings numbers of birds 

 thither, and affords the curious a very singular amusement : if you go after din- 

 ner on the terraces of the houses, and make a motion as if throwing bread, 

 numerous flocks of birds will fly instantly around you, though at first you can- 

 not discover one ; but they are floating aloft in the air, and descend in a moment 

 to seize in their flight the morsels of bread which the inhabitants frequently 

 amuse themselves with throwing to them." This account of Volney is confirmed by 

 my friend Dr. Russel, who has furnished me with an additional fact on this sub- 

 ject. Dr. Russel says, that the relation of Volney is true ; and that it is the 

 amusement of the inhabitants, or rather of the Europeans, to allure birds by 

 throwing up pieces of bread from the flat tops of the houses ; these birds, to 

 the best of his recollection, are the common gull (larus canus Linn.), which ap- 

 pear only at certain seasons. But a fact more to the purpose of the present 

 inquiry, is what Dr. Russel remembers often to have heard asserted by the Eu- 

 ropean sportsmen at Aleppo, and indeed sometimes observed himself; namely, 

 that in the most serene weather, when not a speck could be seen in the sky, nor 

 any object discovered in the horizon of an extensive plain, a dog or other animal 

 killed by accident, or shot, and left behind by the sportsmen as they traversed 

 the country, in the space of a few minutes was surrounded by birds, before in- 

 visible, either of the vulture tribe or the sea eagles (ossifragus Liim.) Whether 

 these birds by vision were directed to their prey, or allured by scent, he would not 

 undertake to pronounce, but the phenomenon occasioned wonder ; and the more 

 so, as there was not time for putrefaction to take place, which might be sup- 

 posed to diffuse scent to a great distance. 



