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- 
clude 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 scerit^ 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 ij 
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, 't 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 i 
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 
