52 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by American Colony, Jerusalem 

 A BEDOUIN OF TRANS-JORDAN WITH HIS HUNTING FAI^CON 



skin on large carcasses may resist the 

 bills of the scavengers until softened by 

 putrefaction, when the birds gorge on a 

 meal of the utmost repulsiveness (see 

 page 56). 



While we may turn in physical revulsion 

 from contemplation of this habit, we may 

 ponder on the adaptations that seemingly 

 give these birds absolute immunity to the 

 poisons, generated in decaying flesh, that 

 would destroy any creature of ordinary 

 digestion. 



The bird-eating hawks pluck most of 

 the feathers from their prey and then tear 

 the flesh into bits that may be swallowed. 

 Mice are often swallowed whole, but rab- 

 bits and mammals of similar size may be 

 partly skinned and the feet may be dis- 

 carded. 



The food passes 

 down into a stomach 

 that is thin-walled 

 and capable of con- 

 siderable distention, 

 and in the throat 

 there is developed a 

 distensible crop that 

 holds a large amount 

 of food until the 

 stomach is ready to 

 receive it. 



Bones, feathers, fur, 

 and other hard ele- 

 ments that cannot be 

 digested are formed 

 into pellets and regur- 

 gitated to leave the 

 stomach empty for 

 another meal. These 

 pellets accumulate be- 

 neath favored perches 

 and offer a valuable 

 index to the food 

 preferences of these 

 birds. Hawks, fal- 

 cons, and eagles carry 

 food in their talons 

 to their young in the 

 nest, but vultures, 

 which do not have 

 powerful feet and legs, 

 feed their young by 

 regurgitating the con- 

 tents of the stomach. 

 Whether the car- 

 rion-feeding vultures 

 locate the carcasses on 

 which they feed through sight or through 

 the sense of smell has been a subject of 

 much controversy among naturalists, and, 

 in spite of many observations on these 

 abundant birds, it is far from being a 

 settled question. 



VUI<TURES POSSESS KEEN SIGHT 



One group of observers contends that, 

 as these birds soar back and forth through 

 rising currents of air or against the wind, 

 sometimes at high and sometimes at low 

 elevations, they encounter the odor from 

 carrion and follow this scent to its source. 

 Others believe that in their flight the pierc- 

 ing eyesight of these birds brings to view 

 possible sources of sustenance, and that 

 vision accounts for the facility with which 

 vultures locate their food. 



