46 



THE VULTURE. 



account of it, I had always imagined that the vulture 

 had a remarkably keen and penetrating eye. I must 

 now alter my opinion. If the American gentlemen 

 do not mind what they are about, they will ulti- 

 mately prove too much, ("quod nimium probat, nihil 

 probat,") and at last compel us Englishmen to con- 

 elude that the vultures of the United States can 

 neither see nor smell.* They assure us that these 

 birds are not guided to their food by their scent^ but 

 by their sight alone ; and then, to give us a clear 

 idea how defective that sight is, they show us that 

 their vultures cannot distinguish the coarsely painted 

 carcass of a sheep on canvass from that of a real 

 sheep. They " commenced tugging at the paint- 

 ing," and " seemed much disappointed and sur- 

 prised" that they had mistaken canvass for mutton. 

 Sad blunder ! Pitiable, indeed, is the lot of the 

 American vulture ! His nose is declared useless in 

 procuring food, at the same time that his eyesight 

 is proved to be lamentably defective. Unless some- 

 thing be done for him, \ is ten to one but that he '11 

 come to the parish at last, pellis et ossa, a bag of 

 bones. 



The American philosophers having fully estab- 

 lished the fact, that their vultures are prone to 

 mistake a piece of coarsely painted canvass for the 

 carcass of a real sheep " skinned and cut up," I am 

 now quite prepared to receive accounts from 

 Charleston of vultures attacking every shoulder-of- 

 mutton sign in the streets, or attempting to gobble 

 down the painted sausages over the shop doors, or 



