206 



WILD SPAIN. 



with air like the wands of a wind-mill, enable them to 

 rest on space, to soar for hours, as it were, by mere 

 volition. How all the vultures manage to find subsistence 

 is a problem, for even in Spain the earth is not strewn 

 with carcases, as on a battle-field. 



Towards a certain point of the evergreen plain of pal- 

 metto, there is a visible concentration of soaring forms : 

 thither a string of creaking carros has conveyed to their last 

 resting-place some dead horses, the victims of Sunday's bull- 

 fight. Thither flock the vultures to hold high carnival : and 

 a striking sight it is to watch perhaps forty or fifty, as they 

 soar and wheel in as many opposing, concentric circles, 

 gradually focussing themselves over the point of attraction. 

 But as they fold their wings and gather in a seething mass 

 around the carrion, all that was majestic and imposing disap- 

 pears — as they tear open the flanks and, with spluttering 

 growls and gurgles, and flapping of huge wings, dive their 

 great bare necks into the innermost penetralia, the 

 spectacle changes to the repulsive. Yet, as the only 

 existing system of scavengers, they are performing a useful 

 office. Quickly swells the crowd : from every quarter 

 come more and more — the heavens seem alive with hurry- 

 ing forms sweeping down to the banquet. As the earlier 

 arrivals become satiated, they withdraw a few yards from 

 the revels to enjoy the state of rare repletion, perched 

 on a neighbouring tree or hillock, where they sit with 

 distended crop, fluffed-out feathers and half-closed wings, 

 gorged to the last mouthful, but making room for fresh 

 comers, hungry as they had been before. Thus within a 

 few hours the luckless horses have found a tomb, and 

 when the Griffons have left nothing but bare bones, then 

 another feathered scavenger appears, the Neophron, or in 

 Spanish Quebranta-haesos, i.e., the bone-smasher, who sets 

 diligently to work to loosen the ligaments and tear the 

 skeleton asunder. Then, one by one, the bones are carried 

 off and broken by being dropped from a height upon the 

 rocks, when the fragments are devoured : thus the earth is 

 cleansed of corrupting matter. 



Vultures, though found all over Spain — whether in 



