The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-11-06
The vulture or Eagle of Scripture

The Vulture or Eagle of Scripture.
Allusion is made In several passages
to the swiftness of the eagle, as we'll as
its voracity. See, for example, a por-
ton of David's 1amentation over the
bodies of Saul and Jonathan. who. &C
cording to the poets metaphor, Were
lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in
their death they were not divided they
were swifter than eagles, they were
stronger than lions" The Chaldeans
are thus alluded to by the prophet Jere-
miah: GO Our prosecutors are swifter
than the eagles of the hesvens they
pursued us upon the mountains, they
laid wait for us In the Wilderness" F." ia
mentations iv. 19). There issomethlng
peculiarly appropriate in employing the
vulture as an image of strength and
swiftness when applied to warriors. the
bird being an invariable attendant on
the battle, and flying to the field of
death with marvellous swiftness. All
who had ever witnessed battle were
familiar with the presence of the vul-
ture; the scene Of carnage and the i'm
age which is employed would be one
which commended itself at once to
those for whom it was intended. And
as the earlier history of the Jewish na-
tion is essentially of a warlike character,
we can not wonder that SO powerful and
familiar an image should have been
repeatedly introduced into the sacred
writings.
Piercing and wonderful as is the vi
sion of the vulture, its visual powers
have been much exaggerated. It GER
tainIy does possess a vision of no ordi-
nary capacity, which is able to as
sumo either a telescope or micro
scopic character, by means of a COM
plex andmsrvelous structure, which can
alter the whole shape of the organ at
the viii of the bird. Not only can the
eve be thus altered, but it changes in
simultaneously, so as to accommodate it,
self to the task which it is to perform.
A vulture, for example, sees from
vast height the body of the dead ami
NAL, and instantly swoops down upon
it like an arrow from a bow. In order |
to enable the bird to see so distant an
object, the eye has been exercising it's
powers and yet, in a second |
or two, when the vulture is close to its
prey, the whole form of the eye must |
be changed, or the bird would mistake |
its distance, and dash itself to pieces on |
the ground. But although the vulture
can see to an enormous distance, and |
with great clearness, it can see neither |
so far nor SO clearly as is popularity /
1t is true that as soon as
a carcass is discovered it will be Gov
cred with vultures, which arrive from
every side, looking at first like tiny |
specks in the air, scarcely psrceptible
even to practiced eyes, and all directing
their fight to the same point. "Where
the carcass is, there viii the vultures be
gathered together" But although they1
all fly toward the same spot, it does
not follow that they have all seen the
same object. The fact is, they see and
each others movements.
A single vulture, for example, sees a
dead or dying sheep, and swoops down
upon it. The other vuItures which are
flying about in search of food, and from
which the animal IN question may be
know perfectly we'll that a
vulture scars high in the air when
searching for food, and only darts to
the earth when it has found a suitable
prey. They Immediately follow its ex-
ample, and, in their turn, are followed
by other vultures, which can see their
fellows from distance, and know per
fectly we'll why they are all sconveFg-
ing to one spot. In this way all the
of a neighborhood viii un-
derstand, by a very Ineligible tele-
graph, that dead body of some ami
NAL has been found, and, aided by their
wonderful powers of flight, will assem-
ble over its body in an almost incredi-
bly, short space of time.