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.”[150]

The power of the Vulture’s sight was long disputed by the former generation of naturalists, and the celebrated Waterton wrote an article on the “Faculty of Scent in the Vulture,”[151] to prove that it was more by this means than by sight that the bird was able to discover a carcase. Waterton was well acquainted with Vultures in Demarara and in Southern Spain, and he sums up his argument as follows:—“After the repeated observations I have made in the country where it abounds, I am quite satisfied that it is directed to its food by means of its olfactory nerves coming in contact with putrid effluvium, which rises from corrupted substances through the heavier air. Those are deceived who imagine that this effluvium would always be driven to one quarter in the tropics, where the trade-winds prevail. Often, at the very time that the clouds are driving from the north-east up above, there is a lower current of air coming from the quarter directly opposite. This takes place most frequently during the night-time, in or near the woods; and it often occurs early in the morning, from sunrise till near ten o’clock, when the regular trade-wind begins to blow. Sometimes it is noticed in the evening, after sunset; and now and then during the best part of the day in the rainy season.... Vultures, as far as I have been able to observe, do not keep together in a large flock when they are soaring up and down in quest of a tainted current. Now, suppose a Mule has just expired behind a high wall, under the dense foliage of evergreen tropical trees; fifty Vultures, we will say, roost in a tree a mile from this dead Mule. When morning comes, off they go in quest of food. Ten fly, by mere chance, to the wood where the Mule lies, and manage to spy it through the trees; the rest go quite in a different direction. How are the last-mentioned birds to find the Mule? Every minute carries them farther from it. Now reverse the statement; and instead of a Mule nearly dead, let us suppose a Mule in an offensive state of decomposition. I would stake my life upon it that not only the fifty Vultures would be at the carcase next morning, but also that every Vulture in the adjacent forest would manage to get there in time to partake of the repast.” It will be seen from the above that Mr. Waterton allowed the keen sight of the Vultures to play, on some occasions, a part in their discovering food. Another observation on this subject is contained in the late Mr. C. J. Andersson’s work on the ornithology of South-western Africa. Writing on the Sociable Vulture (Otogyps auricularis), he says:—“I believe naturalists are not quite agreed as to whether Vultures hunt by sight, by scent, or by both faculties combined. I have myself no doubt that they employ the one sense as well as the other in finding their prey, though I feel inclined to give sight the preference; and I once had a very striking proof of how they employ their vision in guiding them to carrion—in this instance, however, not so much by the actual sight of the carrion (though the first discovery probably originated in that way) as by another singular contrivance. Early one morning, as I was toiling up the ascent of a somewhat elevated ridge of hills, with the view of obtaining bearings for my travelling map, and before arriving at the summit, I observed several Vultures descending near me: but thinking I had merely disturbed them from their lofty perch, I did not take any particular notice of their appearance, as the event was one of usual occurrence; but on gaining my destination, I found that the birds were not coming merely from the hill summit, but from an indefinite distance on the other side. This circumstance, coupled with the fact that I had wounded a Zebra on the preceding day in the direction towards which the Vultures were winging their way, caused me to pay more attention. The flight of the Vultures was low—at least five hundred to a thousand feet below the summit of the mountain; and on arriving near the base, they would abruptly rise without deviating from their direct course; and no sooner was the obstacle in their way thus surmounted than they again depressed their flight. Those Vultures which I saw could not have themselves seen the carrion, but simply hunted in direct sight of one another. There was a numerous arrival; and although I could not always detect the next bird as soon as I had lost sight of the previous one, yet, when at length it did come into view, it never seemed uncertain about its course. Having finished my observations, I descended, and proceeded in the direction which the Vultures had pursued; and after about half an hour’s rapid walking, I found, as I anticipated, the carcase of a Zebra, with a numerous company of Vultures busily discussing it.”[152]

Dr. Kirk, the companion of Livingstone, in his paper on the “Birds of the Zambesi Region of Eastern Tropical Africa,”[153] says that to the inexperienced hunter the Griffon is “a great annoyance. If game be left for an hour in the open plain while the men come to carry it off, the birds will descend, and in a very short time completely devour it. This is not so if it be covered over with a little grass or with branches, clearly proving that sight alone is the sense by which the birds discover their prey. If part of the animal be exposed it matters not—probably owing to its being mistaken for one asleep; nor does the presence of blood seem to guide the birds if the carcase be concealed from view.”

Lastly, to quote from Canon Tristram’s interesting essay on the “Ornithology of the Sahara:”[154] “As, happily for the traveller, Camels do not die every day under the weight of their water-skins, the Griffon does not habitually visit the desert. Still, he occasionally gives it a passing call, though, if his meal be deposited near an oasis, he is usually forestalled by the Hyæna (‘Dubba,’ Arab.), who lurks in the ‘weds.’ On one occasion a Camel in our caravan having become footsore had to be slaughtered on the spot. Our attendants selected the tenderest morsels for ‘kouskous,’ the Arab broth; and it was not until the next morning that a Vulture scented, or rather descried, his prey. That the Vulture uses the organ of sight rather than that of smell, seems to be certain from the immense height at which he soars and gyrates in the air. In this instance one solitary bird descended, and half an hour afterwards was joined by a second. A short time elapsed, and the Nubian Vulture (Otogyps nubicus) appeared, self-invited, at the feast; and before the bones were left to the Hyæna no less than nine Griffons and two Nubians had broken their fast. I should hesitate to assert that they had satisfied their appetites. I have observed the same regular succession of diners out on other occasions. May we not conjecture that the process is as follows? The Griffon who first descries his quarry descends from his elevation at once; another, sweeping the horizon at a still greater distance, observes his neighbour’s movements and follows his course; a third, still farther removed, follows the flight of the second; he is traced by another; and so a perpetual succession is kept up as long as a morsel of flesh remains over which to consort. I can conceive no other way of accounting for the numbers of Vultures which in the course of a few hours will gather over a carcase, when previously the horizon might have been scanned in vain for more than one, or at the most two, in sight. Does not this explain the immense number of Vultures who were congregated in the Crimea during the siege of Sebastopol, where the bird was comparatively scarce before? May not this habit of watching the movements of their neighbours have collected the whole race from the Caucasus and Asia Minor to enjoy so unwonted an abundance? The Arabs believe that the Vultures from all North Africa were gathered to feed on Russian Horses in the Crimea, and declare that during the war very few ‘Nissr’ were to be seen in their accustomed haunts.”

The above extracts from authentic works have been made at some length, as exhibiting the general habits of the Vultures. It remains now to notice some of the most striking forms of these birds.

THE BLACK VULTURE[155]

This is an inhabitant of Southern Europe, whence it extends on both sides of the Mediterranean to North-western India, where it is a cold weather visitant, and even to China. In its habits this bird is rather unsociable, and keeps more to the wooded districts, seldom venturing into the open country, except when attracted by the presence of some carcase, on which it feasts in company with the Griffon Vulture. It breeds on trees, constructing a large bulky nest, and only selects a rock for its breeding home when there are no trees to be found in the neighbourhood. It lays one egg, of a richly mottled red colour, two eggs being an extremely rare occurrence. In appearance they are very like those of the Golden Eagle. A story is told of the rescue by a pair of old birds of their young ones, which were in danger from the felling of the tree on which the nest was situated. It is thus related by Count von Tshusi Schmidthofen:—“The royal forester, A. Fikker, found in 1860, on the top of a giant beech in the valley of Dobrabach, in the Sinnaer district, the nest of this Vulture. When the young birds were large enough to be able to save themselves as the tree fell, orders were given to cut the beech down. The wood-cutters had worked at the tree some time, when the old birds appeared, uttering loud cries, and suddenly pounced on the nest, caught hold of the young ones in their claws and disappeared like lightning, carrying off the young (who loudly complained of the unusual mode of locomotion) before the gaze of the astonished spectators.”