Year: 1873

| Inc NuIGuIo OF 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 DOR
ton of David's lamentation over the
bodies of Saul and Jonathan. who, ac-
cording to the poets metaphor, Z: We're
lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in
| their death they were not divided thev
were swifter than eagles, they were
! stronger than lions" The Cbaldeans
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 a 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 ma
| 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
tainly does possess 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 andmarveIous 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, so as to accommodate it
self to the task which it is to perform.
A vulture, for example, sees from a
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 its
telescope 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
80 far nor so clearly as is popularly
supposed. It is true that as SOON as
a carcass is discovered it will be COW
cred with vultures, which arrive from
every side, looking at first like tiny
specks in the air, scarcely perceptible
even to practiced eyes, and all directing
their fight to the same point. "Where
! the carcass is, there will the vultures be
| gathered together" But although they
all fly toward the same spot, it does
not follow that they have all seen the
same object. The fact is, they see and
understand each others movements.
A single vulture, for example, sees a
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 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-
feotly we'll why they are all sconverg-
ing to one spot. In this way all the
vultures of neighborhood will IN
derstand, by very intelligible tele-
graph, that a 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.