188 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
animal. Some writers were of the opinion 
that the sense of smell guided them to their 
feast, but it is now recognized that it is their 
wonderful power of sight that brings them 
together, the phenomenon being aptly described 
by Longfellow in the following lines: 
“ Never stoops the soaring Vulture 
On his quarry in the desert , 
On the sick or wounded Bison , 
But another Vulture , watching 
From his high aerial look-out , 
Sees the downward plunge , and follows ; 
And a third pursues the second , 
Coming from the invisible ether , 
First a speck , and then a Vulture , 
Till the air is dark with pinions ! 99 
Darwin confirms this fact in his writings 
upon the condor vulture, the author stating : 
“When an animal is killed in the country, it 
is well known that the condors, like other 
carrion-vultures, soon gain intelligence of it, 
and congregate in an inexplicable manner. 
In most cases, it must not be overlooked that 
the birds have discovered their prey, and have 
picked the skeleton clean, before the flesh is 
in the least degree tainted. Remembering 
the experiments of M. Andubon, on the little 
smelling powers of carrion-hawks, I tried . . . 
the following experiment: the condors were 
tied, each by a rope, in a long row at the bottom 
