THE TURKEY BUZZARD^ 



appointed. Again, suppose the leader were to round 

 to, and fall upon a stuffed deerskin, and dillj^-dally 

 liis time away in reconnoitring it, would not the 

 rest, on coming up, have just reason to be much out 

 of temper ? Our author continues, " If the object 

 discovered is large, lately dead, and covered with a 

 skin too tough to be ate and torn asunder " (cart 

 before the horse), " and afford free scope to their 

 appetite, they remain about it, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Perched on high dead limbs, in such 

 conspicuous positions, they are easily seen by other 

 vultures, who, through habit, know the meaning of 

 such stoppages, and join the first flock, going also 

 directly, and affording further evidence, to those 

 who are satisfied with appearances only. In this 

 manner I have seen several hundreds of vultures 

 and carrion crows assembled near a dead ox, at the 

 dusk of evening, that had only two or three in the 

 morning ; when some of the latter comers had 

 probably travelled hundreds of miles, searching 

 diligently themselves for food, and probably would 

 have had to go much farther had they not espied this 

 association." A little after this, having described 

 the manner in which the " famished cannibals " sa- 

 tisfied their hunger, the author says, " The repast 

 finished, each bird gradually rises to the highest 

 branches of the nearest trees, and remains there, 

 until the digestion of all the food they" (instead of 

 it) "have" (has) "swallowed is completed." 



Here we have, perched on high trees, flocks of 

 vultures waiting till their dinner be sufficiently 

 tender ; and also flocks of vultures waiting on the 

 D 4 



