172 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH, XXXI. 



vourers. I am far more inclined to attribute their 

 facility in finding out their food to a quick sense of 

 sight. For the sake of catching these birds and the 

 grey crows also, I was accustomed to have the dead 

 vermin thrown out into a field near the house where 

 traps were placed round them. When the cats 

 were skinned, and therefore were the more con- 

 spicuous, the carrion birds usually found them out 

 the same afternoon. Now buzzards, ravens, and 

 other birds who feed on dead bodies are in the 

 habit of frequently soaring for liours together, at an 

 immense height in the air, wheeling round and 

 round in wide circles. I have no doubt that at 

 these times they are searching with their keen and 

 far-seeing eye for carcases and other substances 

 fit for food. The eagle, -who also feeds on dead 

 bodies, wheels and circles in a similar manner, at 

 such a height in the air that he frequently looks like 

 a mere speck in the sky. There can be no doubt 

 that it is upon his eye only that he depends. When, 

 even at this vast height, his quick eye catches sight 

 of a grouse in the heather, down drops the bird 

 of prey as if shot, till within some thirty yards of 

 the ground, when sufldenly stopping his downward 

 course, he again hovers stationary over the grouse, 

 till a fair opportunity offers itself for a swoop. I 

 have frequently seen the eagle do this ; and he has 



