THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 
39 
appointed. Again, suppose the leader were to round 
to, and fall upon a stuiFed deerskin, and dilly-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 sufUciently 
tender; and also flocks of vultures waiting on the 
D 4 
