found in the neigkhourhood of Simla. 539 



it flies at first low along the moimtain- side^ and then rapidly 

 soaring upwards in wide gyrations is soon lost to view in the 

 azure of the sk3^ One has only to take up a station on some 

 prominent peak during the middle of the day here, and in a 

 short space of time several of these huge birds may be seen, 

 as mere specks, sweeping the heavens at immense heights in 

 all directions — now from north to south, now from east to 

 west. But these are only the birds that can actually be 

 seen. How many more must there be among the clouds 

 that are beyond the range of human vision ? Whence do 

 they come ? Whither do they go ? Ai^e all these movements 

 aimless or without a definite purpose? To the casual 

 observer they may doubtless appear so, but not to the 

 naturalist, who knows well from long experience that each 

 and every bird is ever watchful, ever on the alert. Not a 

 single movement on the part of the lowest ever escapes his 

 companions soaring above him. Let only one of these make 

 a swoop towards the earth, or descend on some carrion which 

 lies in the valley below, and the air soon resounds with the 

 downward rush and vibrations of mighty pinions. 



Times out of number we have satisfied ourselves that the 

 Vultures soaring in the lowest stratum of the atmosjjhere 

 are guided in the first instance to their quarry not by 

 scent — for if it is at all concealed, they have considerable 

 difficulty in finding it — but by the clamoui'ings and move- 

 ments of Jungle-Crows [Corvus mac?'orhynchus) , which seem 

 to have an extraordinary faculty for locating any carrion. 



We have stood and watched, from close quarters, large 

 flocks of these Vultures, sometimes as many as 60 to 80 

 birds, struggling and squabbling over a single carcass, and 

 must confess that these exhibitions have always struck us as 

 being at once the most revolting and the most instructive of 

 sio-hts to behold. The entrails and liver of the defunct 

 animal are generally the first which are disposed of, then 

 follow the fleshy parts, and the rapidity with which these 

 disappear is truly astonishing. The bones and skin are the 

 only parts which escape attention. 



The duration of one of these orgies is seldom prolonged 



