THE VULTURE. 
137 
them an opportunity of tearing it off, but they are 
then as often disappointed of their expected feast, 
for the flesh, when in a very decayed state, becomes 
almost fluid, and runs off, to the gr§at disappointment 
of the hungry birds. 
Naturalists are a good deal divided as to the 
faculty by which these birds are enabled to discover, 
in a most surprising manner, a dead or dying animal 
at the distance of even many miles. 
In travelling over the immensely wide deserts of 
Africa, where there is not a blade of grass to tempt 
a living bird or animal, and no inducement, there- 
fore, for birds of prey to scour those vast wildernesses 
in search of game, should a camel or other beast of 
burden drop under its load, in the train of a caravan, 
in less than half an hour there will be seen, high in 
the air, a number of the smallest specks, moving 
slowly round in circles, and gradually growing larger 
and larger as they descend in spiral windings towards 
the earth; these are the Vultures, but whence they 
come, or by what sign, or call, they are collected at a 
height beyond the reach of the human eye, is still a 
mystery; though we are much inclined to suspect 
that they derive their information from an incon- 
ceivable keenness of sight, rather than, as some sup- 
pose, from an extraordinary sense of smelling, which 
has been attributed to them. When within a few 
yards, the spiral motion is changed for a direct line, 
they then alight on the body, and tearing it in pieces, 
feed upon it with greediness. 
Some idea, indeed, may be formed of their vora- 
city, when we are assured that, at one meal, a 
Vulture contrived to devour the whole body, bones 
