The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1873-11-06
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, por-
ton of David's lamentation over the
bodies of Saul and Jonathan, who, ac-
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 "Our prosecutors are swifter
than the eagles of the heavens they
pursued us upon the mountains, they
laid wait for us in the wilderness" La
mentations iv. 19). There is something
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; tho scene of carnage and the i'm
ago 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 ma
tion is essentially of warlike character,
we can not wonder that 30 powerful and
familiar an image should have been
repeatedly introduced into the sacred
writings.
Piercing and ..wonderful.as is tho vi
sion of the vulture, its visual powers
have been much exaggerated. II cor
tainly does possess vision of no ordi-
nary capacity, which is able to as
sumo either telescope or micro.
scopic character, by means of COM
plex andmarvelous structure, which can
alter the whole shape of the organ at
the will of the bird. Not only can the
eye be thus altered, but it changes in
simultaneously, 80 as to accommodate it.
self to the task which it ia to perform
A vulture. for example, sees from {
vast height the body of the dead AMI
NAL, and instantly swoops down upo
it like an arrow from a bow. In orde
to enable the bird to 500 so distant a
object, the eye has been exercising il
telescope powers and yet, in secon
or two when tho vulture is close to it
prey, the whole form of the eye mus
be changed, or the bird would mistak,
its distance, and dash itself to pieces OF
the ground. But although the vulturt
can see to an enormous distance, ant
with great clearness, it can see neither
so far nor so clearly as is popularly
supposed. 1t is true that as soon at
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 perceptibls
even to practiced eyes, and all directing
their flight to the same point. "Whert
the carcass is, there will the vultures be
gathered together" But although they
all fly toward tho same spot, il does
not follow that they have all seen the
same object. The fact is, they soc and
understand each others movements.
A single vulture, for example, sees q
dead or dying sheep, and swoops down
upon it. The'other vultures which are
flying about in search of food, and from
which the animal in question may be
concealed, know perfectly we'll that a
vulture soars high in the air when
searching for food, and only darts to
the earth when it has found suitable
prey. They Immediately follow ita ex-
ample, and, in their turn, are followed
by other vultures, which can sec their
fellows from distance, and know per-
fectly well why they are all ..converg-
ing to ono spot. In this way all the
vultures of a ncighborhood will un-
derstand, by very intelligible tele-
graph, that dead body of some ami
NAL has been found, and, aided by their
wonderful powers of flight, will assem-
BILE over its body in an almost incredi-
bly, short space of time.