CONCERNING VULTURES 
189 
of a wall, and, having folded up a piece of 
meat in white paper, I walked backwards and 
forwards carrying it in my hand at the distance 
of about three yards from them, but no notice 
whatever was taken. I then threw it on the 
ground, within one yard of an old male bird; 
he looked at it for a moment with attention, 
but then regarded it no more. With a stick 
I pushed it closer and closer, until at last he 
touched it with his beak, the paper was then 
instantly torn off with fury; at the same 
moment every bird in the long row began 
struggling and flapping its wings. Under the 
same circumstances it would have been quite 
impossible to have deceived a dog.” 
A somewhat similar experiment was made 
by another naturalist with a turkey-vulture 
or turkey-buzzard, pieces of putrid offal being 
hidden beneath some thin canvas, upon the 
upper surface of which some fresh meat was 
placed. The vulture quickly ate up the latter, 
but, notwithstanding that its beak and nostrils 
were within a fraction of an inch of the con¬ 
cealed offal, it failed to discover the food until 
a small hole was made in the canvas, thereby 
revealing it to the eye of the bird. The 
experiment was then repeated, but in spite of 
the fact that the vulture had just been shown 
where the offal had previously been hidden. 
