342 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



prey, as eagles do, but prefer to feed upon the carcasses of animals 

 which they find lying dead. 



How the birds discover these carcasses it is not at all easy to 

 say. For a great many years naturalists thought that their 

 powers of scent were so keen that they could detect the odour of 

 putrefying flesh at a very great distance, and so were attracted to 

 the spot where their repulsive banquet was lying. But then it 

 was found that if the body of a dead animal were covered 

 over, so that it could be smelt without being seen, the vultures 

 would fly past it over and over again without discovering it. 

 On one occasion a vulture actually perched upon the carcass of 

 a horse which had been covered with sacking, and never found 

 out that the material for a hearty meal was lying beneath its feet. 

 So it seems very certain that vultures do not find their food by 

 means of their powers of scent. 



They have doubtless very sharp eyes, like all birds of prey. 

 But then they will come to a carcass from miles away, when it 

 must be completely hidden from their sight. In the Crimean 

 war, for instance, vultures were attracted to the battle-fields from 

 a distance of hundreds of miles. So it would seem that they 

 do not find their food by their sense of sight alone. 



The real explanation of the mystery seems to be this. A 

 vulture, when he is looking for food, always rises to a great height 

 in the air — so high, indeed, that, great bird though he is, he looks 

 but the merest speck — and there he hovers motionless, just as a 

 kestrel does in our own country. Now, while he is thus poised 

 aloft, he not only scans every yard of the country beneath him, 

 but also probably keeps a careful watch upon every other vulture 

 within sight. If one or other of these swoops down to the ground, 

 the presence of food is suggested, and he flies off to partake of the 

 feast. Other vultures have observed him; and they naturally 

 follow. Others follow in their turn ; and so before very long quite 

 a number of the great birds have collected together, all pushing 

 and jostling one another in order to obtain a share of the feast. 



Knowing how quickly these birds are attracted by the carcass 

 of a dead animal, the natives of Africa sometimes trap them in a 

 very ingenious manner. 



