The services of the Vultures as scavengers in removing offal render them valuable, and almost a necessity in southern cities. If an animal is killed and left exposed to view, the bird is sure to find out the spot in a very short time, and to make its appearance as if called by some magic spell from the empty air. "Never stoops the soaring Vulture On his quarry in the desert, On the sick or wounded bison, But another Vulture, watching, From his high aerial lookout, Sees the downward plunge and follows; And a third pursues the second, Coming from the invisible ether, First a speck, and then a Vulture, Till the air is dark with pinions." TO A WATER-FOWL. Whither, 'midst falling dew While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocky billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side. There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-- The desert and illimitable air-- Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end; Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and nest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, Soon o'er thy sheltered nest. Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. He who from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. [Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff. GAMBEL'S PARTRIDGE.] GAMBEL'S PARTRIDGE. Gambel's Partridge, of which comparatively little is known, is a characteristic game bird of Arizona and New Mexico, of rare beauty, and with habits similar to others of the species of which there are about two hundred. Mr. W. E. D. Scott found the species distributed throughout the entire Catalina region in Arizona below an altitude of 5,000 feet. The bird is also known as the Arizona Quail.