content to be cursed. The bird has degenerated. 

 You can see in his countenance that originally 

 he was not so vicious in taste and habit. If, when 

 this office of scavenger was created, the buzzard 

 was installed, it was because he was too lazy and 

 too indifferent to refuse. He may have protested 

 and sulked; he even continues to protest and 

 sulk : but he has been engaged so long in the 

 business now that he is utterly incapable of 

 earning a living in any other way. 



I saw all this in the face and attitude of the 

 buzzard on the stake above me. He sat there as 

 if conscious that a scavenger's life was beneath 

 a bird of his parts ; he looked mad with himself 

 for submitting to a trade so degrading, mad with 

 his position among the birds : but long ago he 

 recognized the difficulty of changing his place 

 and manner of life, and, rather than make the 

 effort, he sank into this state of soured silence. 



That this is the way to read his personal rec- 

 ord and the history of his clan is clear to my 

 mind, because the bird is still armed with the 

 great talons and beak of the eagles. He was 

 once a hunter. Through generations of disuse 

 these weapons have become dulled, weakened, 

 [335] 



