A VES— GRIFFON VULTURE. 



413 



of a very light and diluted red. Like all the other birds of its tribe, it feeds 

 principally upon dead carcasses, to which it is frequently attracted in very 

 considerable numbers. When it has once made a lodgment upon its prey, 

 it rarely quits the banquet while a morsel of flesh remains ; so that it is not 

 uncommon to see it perched upon a putrefying corpse for several successive 

 days. It never attempts to carry off a portion, even to satisfy its young ; but 

 feeds them by discharging the half digested morsel from its maw. Sometimes, 

 but very rarely, it makes its prey of living victims ; and even then of such 

 only as are incapable of oflfering the smallest resistance ; for in a contest 

 for superiority, it has not that advantage which is possessed by the falcon 

 tribes, of lacerating its enemy with its talons, and must therefore rely upon 

 the force of its beak alone. It is only, however, when no other mode of 

 satiating its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the destruction 

 of other animals for its subsistence. 



After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, patiently 

 waiting until the work of digestion is completed, and the stimulus of hunger 

 is renewed, to enable and to urge it to mount again into the upper regions 

 of the air, and fly abroad in quest of its necessary food. If violently dis- 

 turbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it has disgorged the 

 contents of its stomach ; Lightened of which, and freed from their debilitat- 



