Buffon has branded the Vulture with a stigma of infamy which will always cast an odium on its name. "Vultures," says he, "are actuated by nothing but a degraded instinct of gluttony and greediness. They will never contend with the living if they can glut their appetites on the dead. The Eagle attacks its enemies or its victims face to face; it pursues them, fights them, and seizes them by its own individual prowess. Vultures, on the contrary, however slight may be the resistance which they anticipate, combine in flocks like cowardly assassins, and are rather thieves than warriors—birds of carnage rather than birds of prey; for these are the only birds which are so madly devoted to carrion that they pick the very bones of a decaying carcass. Corruption and infection seem to attract instead of repelling them." Further on, too, he adds, "In comparing birds with quadrupeds, the Vulture seems to combine the strength and cruelty of the tiger with the cowardice and gluttony of the jackal."
The great naturalist has, however, somewhat calumniated the Vulture. In depicting it in such very dark colours, his desire seems to be to contrast it with the Eagle, which he had represented as the highest type of courage and nobility; and he has evidently yielded to the temptation to make the contrast between the two birds as striking as possible. The idea of this antithesis must, in fact, have led Buffon's mind astray, as he was often more fond of figure than fact. The Vulture seeks after carcasses because it really prefers them to living prey; and its not attacking living animals, like the rest of the family, is caused by the fact that it is neither armed nor organised for such an attack. It obeys the irresistible and ordained instincts of its nature, and in this we have no right to discover any feeling of cowardice. In the present day it is really time to have done with all these time-worn rhetorical fancies of the old naturalists, which are in continual and complete variance with the results of science and observation.
Fig. 304.—The Yellow Vulture (Vultur fulvus).
The Vulture genus comprises several species, all of which belong to the Old World.
The Yellow Vulture ([Fig. 304]), the size of which is about equal to that of the Goose, is a native more especially of the South and South-east of Europe. It is common in the Pyrenees, Alps, Sardinia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Spain; it is rarely seen in France. It makes its nest in the crevice of some inaccessible rock. When pressed by hunger it shows no fear in attacking living animals; it is thus an object of dread among the shepherds along the sea-coast of the Mediterranean. It is easily tamed when caught young. Of this fact M. Nordmann gives us an instance:—
"A lady residing at Taganrog," says he, "was in possession of a Yellow Vulture which was in the habit every morning of leaving its home and resorting to the fresh-meat market, where the bird was well known and usually fed. If it so happened that it was refused its daily pittance, it was always well able to get hold of it by some cunning or other; and then, after the larceny was committed, the bird would take itself off to the roof of some neighbouring house, so as to consume its plunder in peace, and safe from any attack. This bird would often cross the Sea of Azoff, and visit the city of the same name, situated opposite Taganrog; and, after having spent the day there, would come back at night to the house of its mistress."
There is a variety of the above bird rather larger than the one just noticed. It is common in the Alps, Pyrenees, the Tyrol, the Greek Archipelago, and also in the South of Spain, in Egypt, and a great part of Africa. In autumn it leaves the temperate regions to winter in some warmer clime. M. Degland and M. Bouteille mention various instances of intelligence and courage shown by it, for it has been known to repel dogs. Another bird of the same kind, having flown away from its master's house, grievously wounded two men who endeavoured to catch it. The shepherds fear it even more than the preceding.
Fig. 305—Sociable Vulture (Vultus auricularis)