4-6 THE VULTURE. 



account of it, I had always imagined that the vulture 

 had a remarkably keen and penetrating eye. I must 

 now alter my opinion. If the American gentlemen 

 do not mind what they are about, they will ulti- 

 mately prove too much (" quod nimium probat, nihil 

 probat"), and at last compel us Englishmen to con- 

 clude that the vultures of the United States can 

 neither see nor smell. They assure us that these 

 birds are not guided to their food by their scent, but 

 by their sight alone ; and then, to give us a clear 

 idea how defective that sight is, they show us that 

 their vultures cannot distinguish the coarsely painted 

 carcass of a sheep on canvass from that of a real 

 sheep. They "commenced tugging at the paint- 

 ing," and " seemed much disappointed and sur- 

 prised" that they had mistaken canvass for mutton. 

 Sad blunder ! Pitiable, indeed, is the lot of the 

 American vulture ! His nose is declared useless in 

 procuring food, at the same time that his eyesight 

 is proved to be lamentably defective. Unless some- 

 thing be done for him, 't is ten to one but that he'll 

 come to the parish at last, pellis et ossa, a bag of 

 bones. 



The American philosophers having fully esta- 

 blished the fact, that their vultures are prone to 

 mistake a piece of coarsely painted canvass for the 

 carcass of a real sheep " skinned and cut up," I am 

 now quite prepared to receive accounts from 

 Charleston of vultures attacking every shoulder-of- 

 mutton sign in the streets, or attempting to gobble 

 down the painted sausages over the shop doors, or 



