"I then took a young pig, put a knife through its neck, and made it bleed on the earth and grass about the same, and, having covered it closely with leaves, also watched the result. The vultures saw the fresh blood, alighted about it, followed it down into the ravine, discovered by the blood of the pig, and devoured it, when yet quite fresh, within my sight."
He pursues the subject at some length, recounting other experiments; but these, were they not even given on the authority of Audubon—clarum et venerabile nomen—seem to me to be conclusive.
22 Irving place, New York
FOOTNOTE:
[1] When I said "Wilson" above I find I was slightly mistaken. I remembered reading it long ago in the first edition I possessed of this writer's works—the little four-volume set edited by Prof. Jameson for "Constable's Miscellany," Edinburgh, 1831, and taking down the book now, which I have not opened for years, I find the passages in question (Vol. iv, pp. 245 et seq.) form part of an appendix drawn from Richardson and Swainson's "Northern Zoology," and that the real authority is Audubon.
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| FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES. | HOARY BAT. ½ Life-size. | COPYRIGHT 1899, NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO. |
