SCENTING CARRION AT GREAT DISTANCES. 253 
there until the full digestion of all the food they have 
swallowed is completed ; from time to time opening 
their wings to the breeze, or to the sun, either to cool 
or warm themselves. The traveller may then pass 
them unnoticed, or, if noticed, a mere sham of flying 
off is made. The bird slowly recloses its wings, looks 
at the person as he passes, and remains there until 
hunger again urges him onwards. This takes oftentimes 
more than a day, when gradually, and very often singly, 
each vulture is seen to depart. 
tc They now rise to an immense height, cutting with 
great elegance and ease many circles through the air ; 
now and then gently closing their wings, they lanch 
themselves obliquely with great swiftness for several 
hundred yards, check and resume their portly move- 
ments, ascending until, like mites in the distance, they 
are seen altogether to leave that neighbourhood, to 
seek farther the needed means of subsistence. 
“ Having heard it said, no doubt with the desire to 
prove that buzzards smell their prey, that these birds 
usually fly against the breeze, I may state, that, in my 
opinion, this action is simply used, because it is easier 
for birds to maintain themselves on the wing encoun- 
tering a moderate portion of wind, than when flying 
before it ; but I have so often witnessed these birds 
bearing away under the influence of a strong breeze, as 
if enjoying it, that I consider either case as a mere 
incident connected with their pleasures or their wants. 
“ Here, my dear sir, let me relate one of those facts, 
curious in itself, and attributed to mere instinct, but 
w hich I cannot admit under that appellation, and which, 
in my opinion, so borders on reason, that, were I to 
call it by that name, I hope you will not look on my 
judgment as erroneous, without your farther investi- 
gating the subject in a more general point of view r . 
During one of those heavy gusts that so often take 
place in Louisiana in the early parts of summer, I saw r 
a flock of these birds, which had undoubtedly discovered 
that the current of air that was tearing all over them 
w^as a mere sheet, raise themselves obliquely against it 
