THE EAGLE. 
103 
mained as if floating on a raft, and then spreading out his 
wide wings, he made use of them as sails, and was driven by 
the wind towards the shore. On landing, their first object 
is to disengage their claws by eating the flesh in which they 
are buried, hut before the Erne, of which we are speaking, 
could effect this, some lookers-on rushed in, and took him 
alive. 
The Yulture, too, floats on a prey of a very different 
description. In the rivers of the East, says a traveller,^ one 
is constantly shocked with the sight of a floating corpse, 
Vulture floating on a Corpse. 
with a vulture perched upon it, and expanding its wings to 
cause it to land, that it may devour its horrid meal in leisure. 
Erom what has been said, it will he readily believed that 
they are most voracious in their appetites. These large fish- 
eaters have been known to consume a bucket-full a day; and, 
* Transatlantic Sketches, vol. ii. 
