. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. ica, was publishedat over i;200 per copy. Thedispute was as to whethervultures detected their preyby the sense of smell or made experimentswhich he proved to showthat vultures were solelyguided by sight in dis-covering their prey, andalthough the Englishmantried to prove the experimentsof his friend as inconclusive,the Americans opinion isnow universally themiddle of lastcentury theblack vulturewas lookedupon as quitea blessing bythe inhabi-tants of thelarge cities,and a con-siderablepenalty wasi
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. ica, was publishedat over i;200 per copy. Thedispute was as to whethervultures detected their preyby the sense of smell or made experimentswhich he proved to showthat vultures were solelyguided by sight in dis-covering their prey, andalthough the Englishmantried to prove the experimentsof his friend as inconclusive,the Americans opinion isnow universally themiddle of lastcentury theblack vulturewas lookedupon as quitea blessing bythe inhabi-tants of thelarge cities,and a con-siderablepenalty wasimposed forkilling Charles-town theywere com-monly calledFive Pounds, from the amount of thispenalty. That these birds rendered actual ser-vice in removing from the city and its vicinityall dead animals and other garbage, there canbe no doubt, and as they live on no other kindof food, and are to be counted by tens ofthousands, they may appropriately be calledscavengers, as the following account by Ullongoes to prove: The great number of these ^52 Animal Life. A PAIE OF CANARDS birds found in such hot cKmates is an excellentprovision of nature; as otherwise the putre-faction caused by the constant and excessiveheat would render the air insupportable tohuman life. These birds are familiar on thetops of the houses, which are covered withthem; it is they who cleanse the city of allits animal impurities. There are few animalskilled whereof they do not get the offals, andwhen this food is wanting they have resourceto other garbage, and they can trace carrionat a distance of four leagues, which they donot abandon till there remains nothing butthe skeleton. In many of the vultures atthe Zoo there is something to admire, butthese insignificant birds are quite uninterest-ing and never utter a sound, except a kind ofhissing noise, through the hole in the upperpart of the beak. A peculiar characteristicof these vultures, in common with theirgroup, is the absence of the voice organ i
Size: 1791px × 1395px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1902
