THE FACULTY OF SCENT IN THE VULTURE. 243 



was performed many times, the conqueror striking its prostrate ad- 

 versary with its fore-feet, and clearing off great quantities of down 

 with them. In the meantime the vanquished hare rolled over and 

 over again, but could not recover the use of its legs, although it made 

 several attempts to do so. Its movements put you in mind of a 

 drunken man trying to get up from the floor after a hard night in the 

 ale-house. It now lay still on the ground, effectually subdued, whilst 

 the other continued its attacks upon it with the fury of a little demon. 

 Seeing that the fight was over, we approached the scene of action, 

 the conqueror hare retiring as we drew near. I took up the fallen 

 combatant just as it was breathing its last. Both its sides had been 

 completely bared of fur, and large patches of down had been torn 

 from its back and belly. It was a yvell-conditioned buck-hare, weigh- 

 ing, I should suppose, some seven or eight pounds. Mr Carr's groom 

 was standing by the stable-door as I came up with the hare in my 

 hand. " Here, John," said I, " take this to your own house, and get 

 your wife to dress it for your family ; it is none the worse for being 

 killed on Easter- Sunday ;" and then I told him how it had come into 

 my possession. He thanked me kindly for it ; and I learned from 

 Mr Carr, at the end of the week, that John's wife had made it into a 

 pie, with the addition of a few rashers of bacon ; that it proved to be 

 uncommonly good; and that they would all remember, for many years 

 to come, the fight betwixt the two hares in the park at Walton Hall, 

 on Easter-Sunday afternoon, the i6th of April 1843. 



THE FACULTY OF SCENT IN THE 

 VULTURE. 



"Et truncas inhonesto vulnere nares." ALneid, lib. vi. 

 I NEVER thought that I should have lived to see this bird deprived 

 of its nose. But in the third number of Jameson 's Journal, a modern 

 writer has actually given " An account of the habits of the turkey 

 buzzard ( Vultur aura\ with a view of exploding the opinion gene- 

 rally entertained of its extraordinary power of smelling ; " and I see 



