124 ENCOUNTER OF THE EAGLE AND VULTURE. 
out of the unfortunate rascal's mouth, and actually 
dragged him along through the air, for a space of 
twenty or thirty yards, much against the vulture's 
will. Now, though the eagle pulled, and the vul- 
ture resisted, still the yard of gut, which we must 
suppose was in a putrid state, for reasons already 
mentioned, remained fixed and firm in the vulture's 
bill. With such a force, applied to each extremity, 
the gut ought either to have given way in the mid- 
dle, or to have been cut in two at those places 
where the sharp bills of the birds held it fast. But 
stop, reader, I pray you : speculation might be 
allowed here, provided this uncommon encounter 
had taken place on terra jirma ; but, in order that 
our astonishment may be wound up to the highest 
pitch, we are positively informed that the conten- 
tion took place, not on the ground, or in a tree, but 
in the circumambient air ! 
Pray, how was it possible for the eagle to ad- 
vance through the air, and to have dragged along a 
resisting vulture, by means of a piece of gut acting 
as a rope about a yard in length ? Birds cannot 
fly backwards ; and the very act of the eagle turn- 
ing round to progress after it had seized the end of 
the gut, would have shortened the connecting me- 
dium so much, that the long wings of both birds 
must have immediately come in contact ; their pro- 
gress would have been prevented by the collision ; 
and, in lieu of the eagle dragging the resisting 
vulture through the air, for a space of twenty or 
thirty yards, both birds would have come to the 
ground, or the gut would have given way. 
