AVES—GRIFFON VULTURE. 413 
of a very 1ght anddiluted 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 thein 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 offering the smallest resistance; for in a contest 
for superiority, it has not that advantage which is possessed by the falcoa 
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 tne 
conients of its stomach; lightened of which, and freed from their debilitat- 
