. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. 18 THE BLACK VULTURE. The movements of the hunters are carefully watched by the Black Vulture, wliich follows their course with eagerness, knowing how often they may wound an animal which may be able to escape them for a, time, but is sure at last to fall a prey to its relentless winged pursuer. Oftentimes the hunters will kill a bison or a deer merely for the sake of the skin, the marrow- bones, or the hump, leaving the remainder on the ground for the benefit of the Zopilotes and the wo
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. 18 THE BLACK VULTURE. The movements of the hunters are carefully watched by the Black Vulture, wliich follows their course with eagerness, knowing how often they may wound an animal which may be able to escape them for a, time, but is sure at last to fall a prey to its relentless winged pursuer. Oftentimes the hunters will kill a bison or a deer merely for the sake of the skin, the marrow- bones, or the hump, leaving the remainder on the ground for the benefit of the Zopilotes and the wolves, who soon strip the bones of every particle of the tiesh. Accoi'ding to Don Ulloa, the Zopilotes deserve the gratitude of mankind for the part which they play in destroying the eggs of the alligator, and assisting in keeping down the number of this prolific and dangerous reptile. During the summer, the Zopilote watches the female alligator as she comes to the sandy liver-shore for the purpose of depositing her eggs, and Mi m. BLACK VULTURE-(,?««(((/?;«<« utnUa. permits the reptile to complete her task without any interruption. Scarcely, however, is the alligator fairly out of the way, than the Zopilote issues from its place of concealment, and throwing the sand aside with its bill, feet and wings, disinters the eggs, breaks the shells, and swallows their contents. Of the voracity of these birds, Wilson gives the following graphic account:— "A horse had dropped dowii in the street in convulsions : and dying, it was dragged out of town and skinned. The ground for a hundred yards around it was black with carrion crows ; many sat on tlie tops of sheds, fences, and houses within sight ; sixty or eighty on the opposite side of a small river. I counted at one time two hundred aud thirty-seven, and I believe there were more, besides several in the air, over my head and at a distance. I ven- tured cautiously within thirty yards of the carcase, where three or four dogs
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
