2 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



and least accessible parts of the mountain valleys. The nest is large, composed 

 of strong - thorny twigs and grass, in every way similar to the nests of the eagle 

 tribe, but more slovenly constructed. The same pair resort for several years to 

 the same nest, bestowing little trouble or attention in repairing it. They lay two 

 nearly spherical jet-black eggs, about the size of those of a goose. They hatch 

 generally about the first of June, and the period of incubation is twenty-nine or 

 thirty-one days. The young are covered with thick whitish down, and are incapable 

 of leaving- the nest until the fifth or sixth week. Their food is carrion, or dead 

 fish : in no instance will they attack any living animal, unless it be wounded and 

 unable to walk. Their senses of smelling* and seeing are remarkably keen. In 

 searching for prey, they soar to a great altitude, and on discovering a wounded 

 deer, or other animal, they follow its track until it sinks, when they descend preci- 

 pitately on their object. Although only one bird may be at first in possession of 

 the carcass, few minutes elapse before the prey is surrounded by great numbers, 

 and it is then devoured to a skeleton within an hour, even should it be one of the 

 larger animals, a stag, for instance, or a horse. Their voracity is almost insa- 

 tiable, and they are extremely ungenerous, suffering no other animal to approach 

 them while feeding. After eating they become so sluggish and indolent, as to 

 remain in the same place until urged by hunger to go in quest of another repast. 

 At such times, they perch on decayed trees, with their heads so much retracted, 

 as to be with difficulty observed through the long, loose, lanceolate feathers of the 

 collar. The wings, at the same time, hang down over the feet. This position 

 they invariably preserve in dewy mornings, or after rains. Except after eating, 

 or while guarding their nest, they are so excessively wary, that the hunter can 

 scarcely ever approach sufficiently near even for buck-shot to take effect on them, 

 the fulness of the plumage affording them a double chance of escaping uninjured. 

 Their flight is slow, steady, and particularly graceful, gliding along with scarcely 

 any apparent motion of the wings, the tips of which are curved upwards in flying. 

 They are seen in greatest numbers, and soar highest, before hurricanes or 

 thunder-storms. Their quills are used by the hunters as tubes for tobacco-pipes." 



DESCRIPTION 



Of male anil female specimens shot by Mr. Douglas, in lat. 45^° N., and now in the Museum of the Zoological Society. 

 The sexes are alike in plumage, but the female is a size larger. 



Colour of the plumage in general brownish-black. On the back and lesser wing-coverts 

 the feathers have narrow margins of pale umber- brown. A white band crosses the wing on 



* Mr. Audubon, in a highly interesting paper published in the Edin. Ph. Journal, states, that the Vultures are 

 entirely guided by sight, and not by smell, in the discovery of their food. 



