The Vulture

It lives only in warm or hot climates, and there it is very useful, though you might at first bepuzzled to think how this can be. It is because it lives upon such things as would be veryinjurious to man if they were left to decay in the open air. It not only consumes the dead bodiesof animals, but takes away many things from the streets of the cities which the inhabitants aretoo indolent to remove. It is for this reason that in the city of Cairo, in Egypt, there is a lawforbidding any person to kill a vulture. These birds sometimes follow an army, and prey uponthe bodies of those poor soldiers who have been killed in battle. Ah ! it is a sad thing to go towar; almost every thing about it is sad.

The vulture has a very keen eye, and, like the eagle, can see what is on the ground, even when itis very high in the air. This is referred to in the book of Job. "There is a path which no fowlknoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." It often happens in those countries thatalmost as soon as an ox, or a horse, or any other large animal has been killed, great multitudes ofvultures will gather around, though not one could be seen in the sky before. they seem to flydown from every part of the heavens, and being to pull and struggle for the flesh of the animal;until in the course of a few hours nothing is left but the bones. We read in Isaiah, "There shallthe vultures be gathered, every one with her mate." This must have been written by one who hadseen these birds coming together, as they do in great flocks or companies.

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