34 THE KING YULTURE GRIFFON YULTURE. 



In anatomfzing a dead animal, Kolben informs us that these birds 

 exhibit infinite dexterity. They separate the flesh from the bones in 

 such* a manner as to leave the skin almost entire. On approaching a 

 body thus destroyed, no person, till he had examined it, could possibly 

 imagine that it was merely bone and skin, deprived entirely of the in- 

 ternal substance. They begin by tearing an opening in the belly, 

 through which they pluck out and greedily devour the entrails: then 

 enteiing the hollow, they also tear away all the flesh ; and this without 



KING OF VULTURES. 



affecting the external appearance. " It often happens (says this writer) 

 that an ox returning home alone to his stall from the plough, lies down 

 by the way ; it is then, if the Vultures perceive it, that they fall upon it 

 with fury, and inevitably devour the unfortunate animal. They 

 sometimes attempt the oxen while grazing in the fields ; and, to the 

 number of a hundred or more, make their sudden attack all together." 

 Kavenous as these animals are, they are capable of existing for a 

 great length of time without food. In the deserts their subsistence is 

 sometimes very precarious. M. Le Vaillant states that in the crop of 

 *ome that he had killed, he had found nothing but pieces of bark, or 

 a small quantity of clay ; in the crop of others he had found only bones ; 

 and again, of others, the dung of animals. When urged by hunger, 

 they are frequently known to devour their own species. 



