loS SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Evi 



the sun is punctual in fertilising life, these scavengers sworn 

 in and licensed by Nature are no less punctual in withdrawing 

 from his rays the shocking spectacle of death. Seemingly they 

 are ignorant of the importance of their functions. Approach 

 them and they will not retreat. When they have received the 

 signal from their comrades, the crows, which often precede 

 them and point out their prey, you will see the vultures 

 descending a cloud from one knows not whence, as if from 

 heaven. Naturally solitary and without communication, mostly 

 silent, they flock to the banquet by the hundred, and nothing 

 disturbs them. They quarrel not among themselves, they take 

 no heed of the passers-by. They imperturbably accomplish 

 their functions in a stern kind of gravity, with decency and 

 propriety ; the corpse disappears, the skin remains. In a 

 moment a frightful mass of putrid fermentation, which man 

 had never dared to draw near, has vanished has re-entered 

 the pure and wholesome current of universal life. The vulture 

 is an offensive bird, and typifies moral evil. Like moral evil, 

 it has to accomplish good. Our tyrant kings, our brutal 

 soldiery, our dishonest speculators, what have they, the high 

 priests of moral evil, been compelled to accomplish in spite 

 of their own designs 1 They have been used by Nature as 

 vultures. They have cleared the way for settled government, 

 strong laws, railways, roads, and civilisation. T. B. 



Destroyers of Evil. 



The secretary bird, or serpent-eater (Serpentarius reptilivorus), 

 is found upon the dry plains of Southern Africa, where it wages 

 an incessant and deadly war with the infinite multitude of 

 snakes and reptiles of all kinds with which that region abounds. 

 Its wings, which are of large size, and covered with strong quill 

 feathers like those of most Falconidse, are further armed with 

 blunt but strong spurs at the wrist joint, and these wings 

 the bird holds before him like a shield, keeping them in con- 

 tinual agitation, sparring, as it were, as he advances sidelong 

 towards his intended prey. His long legs, which enable him 

 to run with rapidity, also give him a great advantage in this 

 mode of attack, by raising his head to a safe height from the 



