BLACK VULTURE. 38 



The traveller may then pass under them unnoticed ; or, if regarded, a 

 mere sham of flying off" is made. The bird slowly recloses its wings, 

 looks at the person as he passes, and remains there until hunger again 

 urges him onwards. This takes often times more than a day, when gra- 

 dually, and very often singly, each vulture is seen to depart. 



They now rise to an immense height ; cutting, with great elegance 

 and ease, many circles through the air ; now and then gently closing their 

 wings, they launch themselves obliquely, with great swiftness, for several 

 hundred yards, check and resume their portly movements, ascending 

 until, like specks in the distance, they are seen altogether to leave that 

 neighbourhood, to seek elsewhere the required means of subsistence. 



Having heard it said, no doubt with the desire of proving that Buz- 

 zards smell their prey, that these birds usually fly against the breeze, I 

 may state that, in my opinion, this action is simply used, because it is 

 easier for birds to sustain themselves on the wing, encountering a mode- 

 rate portion of wind, than when flying before it ; but I have so often wit- 

 nessed these birds bearing away under the influence of a strong breeze, as 

 if enjoying it, that I consider either case as a mere incident connected 

 with their pleasures or their wants. 



Here, my dear Sir, let me relate one of those facts, curious in itself, 

 and attributed to mere instincts but which I cannot admit under that 

 appellation, and which, in my opinion, so borders on reason, that, were I 

 to call it by that name, I hope you will not look on my judgment as 

 erroneous, without your further investigating the subject in a more 

 general point of view. 



During one of those heavy gusts that so often take place in Louisiana, 

 in the early part of summer, I saw a flock of these birds, which had un- 

 doubtedly discovered that the current of air that was tearing all over 

 them, was a mere sheet, raise themselves obliquely against it, with great 

 force, slide through its impetuous current, and reassume above it, their 

 elegant movements. The power given to them by nature of discerning 

 the approaching death of a wounded animal, is truly remarkable. They 

 will watch each individual thus assailed by misfortune, and follow it with 

 keen perseverance, until the loss of life has rendered it their prey. A 

 poor old emaciated horse or ox, a deer mired on the margin of the lake, 

 where the timid animal has resorted to escape flies and musquitoes, so 

 fatiguing in summer, is seen in distress with exultation by the Buzzard. 

 He immediately alights ; and, if the animal does not extricate itself, waits 



