AERIAL ENCOUNTER OF THE EAGLE AND VULTURE. 265 



out of the unfortunate rascal's mouth, and actually dragged him 

 along through the air, for a space of twenty or thirty yards, much 

 against the vulture's will. Now, though the eagle pulled, and the 

 vulture resisted, still the yard of gut, which we must suppose was in 

 a putrid state, for reasons already mentioned, remained fixed and 

 firm in the vulture's bill. With such a force, applied to each extre- 

 mity, the gut ought either to have given way in the middle, or to 

 have been cut in two at those places where the sharp bills of the 

 birds held it fast. But stop, reader, I pray you : speculation might 

 be allowed here, provided this uncommon encounter had taken place 

 on terra firma ; but, in order that our astonishment may be wound 

 up to the highest pitch, we are positively informed that the conten- 

 tion took place, not on the ground, or in a tree, but in the circum- 

 ambient air ! Pray, how was it possible for the eagle to advance 

 through the air, and to have dragged along a resisting vulture, by 

 means of a piece of gut acting as a rope about a yard in length 7 

 Birds cannot fly backwards ; and the very act of the eagle turning 

 round to progress after it had seized the end of the gut, would have 

 shortened the connecting medium so much, that the long wings of 

 both birds must have immediately come in contact ; their progress 

 would have been prevented by the collision ; and, in lieu of the 

 eagle dragging the resisting vulture through the air for a space of 

 twenty or thirty yards, both birds would have come to the ground, 

 or the gut would have given way. 



I have never read anything in the annals of ornithology that 

 bears any similarity to this aquila-vulturian exhibition progressing 

 through the vault of heaven. Verily " there is a freshness in it." 

 When we reflect that Mr Audubon is an American, that he has lived 

 the best part of his life in America, that the two birds themselves 

 were American, and that their wonderful encounter took place in 

 America, we Englishmen marvel much that Mr Audubon did not 

 allow the press of his own country to have the honour to impart to 

 the world so astonishing an adventure. 



