24 



THE VULTURE. 



might have said of these unfortunate victims of the 

 pestilence, — 



" Their limbs unburied on the naked shore, 

 Devoisring dogs and hungry vultures tore.** 



In Andalusia^ one day in particular, I stood to watch 

 the vultures feeding on the putrid remains of a 

 mule, some ten miles from the pleasant village of 

 Alhaurin. Both kids and lambs were reposing and 

 browsing up and down in the neighbourhood, still 

 the vultures touched them not ; neither did the 

 goatherds seem to consider their flocks as being in 

 bad or dangerous company, otherwise they might 

 have despatched the vultures with very little trouble, 

 for they were so gorged with carrion that they ap- 

 peared unwilling to move from the place. Now, 

 seeing some of the kids and lambs lying on the 

 ground quite motionless, and observing that the 

 vultures paid no attention to them, I came to the 

 following conclusion, viz. that the vulture is directed 

 to its food by means of its olfactory nerves coming 

 in contact with tainted effluvium floating in the 

 atmosphere ; and this being the case, we may safely 

 infer that the vulture cannot possibly mistake a 

 sleeping animal for one in which life is extinct, and 

 which has begun to putrefy. 



If the vulture were directed to its food solely by 

 its eye, there would be a necessity for it to soar to 

 an immense height in the sky; and even then it 

 would be often at a loss to perceive its food on ac- 

 count of intervening objects. But I could never see 



