1811. 
VULTURES. 
377 
has come under my observation, and is every where eagerly robbed 
of its honey. None of these nations have the least idea of bringing 
them under domestic management, but are content to take the honey 
wherever it is found ; and this being done oftentimes at an im- 
proper season, they make a useless destruction of the larvae, or 
young bees still in the comb. It is a circumstance to be wondered 
at, that in the Cape colony no attempt has yet been made to do- 
mesticate this insect. 
19//^. On the body of a dead ox, I observed several large vultures *, 
feeding in harmony with a number of crows. This being the first 
time I had seen this species, I attentively watched its manners for a 
long while with a telescope. It was of an imposing size ; and its 
solemn, slow, and measured movements, added to its black plumage, 
possessed something of a funereal cast, well suited to its cadaverous 
employment. An excellent picture of tlie manners of a vulture 
is drawn by Virgil, in the third book of the ^Eneid, in his 
story of the harpies ; too long to be quoted here, but which the 
sight of these birds, and their habits, brought immediately to my 
recollection, and served greatly to increase the interest with which I 
viewed them. There was a heaviness in their gait and looks, 
which made one feel half-inclined to consider them rather as beasts 
of prey, than as feathered inhabitants of the air. When not 
thus called forth to action, this bird retires to some inaccessible 
crag, sitting almost motionless in melancholy silence for days to- 
gether, unless the smell of some distant carrion, or too long an 
abstinence, draw it from retirement, or force it to ascend into the 
upper regions of air ; where, out of sight, it remains for hours, 
endeavouring to get scent of its nauseous food. These birds must 
possess the sense of smelling in a degree of perfection far beyond 
that of which we have any idea. 
* Vultur auricularis ? L'Oricou ? Le Vaill. Ois. d'Afr. pi. 9. But the auricu- 
lar appendage, which suggested this name, was not observable in the birds we shot; 
neither in the male, nor in the female. 
3 c 
