206 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
themselves upon the disgusting banquet on the field of 
recent battle, or wherever the work of carnage has been 
carried to any great extent. Under such circumstances, 
however horrible that propensity may appear which 
leads them to prey upon the unburied corpses, they 
unquestionably fulfil a wise provision of nature by 
removing from the surface of the earth a mass of cor- 
ruption and putridity which in the warmer climates 
where they abound would otherwise taint the very atmo- 
sphere, and might possibly give rise to diseases still 
more fatal in their effects than the malignant passions 
of man himself, from which the destruction sprung. 
But although such a scene affords the greatest scope for 
the indulgence of their depraved appetites, and conse- 
quently congregates them together in the largest num- 
bers, it is happily of rare occurrence, and their usual 
subsistence is derived from the bodies of dead animals. 
To these they are attracted by the smell, and frequently 
in flocks so numerous as actually to cover and conceal 
the object of their attack, from which they tear away 
large gobbets, and swallow them entire and with insa- 
tiable avidity, never ceasing while yet a morsel remains. 
It is only when hard pressed by hunger that they venture 
to attack a living creature; and their ravages of this 
kind are always confined to the peaceful and timid 
denizens of the poultry-yard. They never carry off 
their victims in their talons, but uniformly devour them 
upon the spot; and even that portion of their prey 
which they transport to their young is first swallowed, 
and afterwards disgorged in the nest. 
These peculiarities of habit, by which the Vultures 
are strikingly contrasted not merely with the Eagles, 
