"Pamlty of Scent in the Vulture, 2S5 



Indies, the Fultur Aura of Guiana, the king of the vultures 

 of Terra Firma, and the vulture which is found in European 

 Andalusia. I am intimately acquainted with all these useful 

 scavengers ; and I have never known any of them to kill the 

 food upon which they feed ; or when they are in a complete 

 state of nature, free from the restraint or allurements of man, 

 ever feed upon that which was not putrid. Having slain the 

 large serpent mentioned in the Wanderings, though I wished 

 to preserve the skeleton, still I preferred to forego the 

 opportunity, rather than not get the king of the vultures. 

 I called Daddy Quasshi, and another negro, and we carried 

 the body into the forest. The foliage of the trees where we 

 laid it was impervious to the sun's rays ; and had any vultures 

 passed over that part of the forest, I think I may say, with 

 safety, that they could not have seen the remains of the 

 serpent through the shade. For the first two days, not a 

 vulture made its appearance at the spot, though I could see 

 here and there, as usual, a Fultur Aura gliding, on apparently 

 immovable pinion, at a moderate height, over the tops of 

 the forest trees. But, during the afternoon of the third day, 

 when the carcass of the serpent had got into a state of 

 putrefaction, more than twenty of the common vultures came 

 and perched upon the neighbouring trees, and the next 

 morning, a little after six o'clock, I saw a magnificent king 

 of the vultures. There was a stupendous mora tree * close 

 by, whose topmost branch had either been dried by time or 

 blasted by the thunder-storm. Upon this branch I killed 

 the king of the vultures, before it had descended to partake 

 of the savoury food which had attracted it to the place. Soon 

 after this, another king of the vultures came, and after he 

 had stufied himself almost to suffocation, the rest pounced 

 down upon the remains of the serpent, and stayed there till 

 they had devoured the last morsel. 



1 think I mentioned, in the Wanderings, that I do not con- 

 sider the Fultur Aura gregarious, properly so speaking ; and 



* Among various interesting extracts from the Wanderings lying by us, 

 we have one on the mora tree, which we beg here to append as a note. 

 — J.D. 



The Moray in Guiana, is a lofty timber tree, the topmost branch bf 

 which, when naked with age, or dried by accident, is the favourite resort 

 of the toucan. It also frequently happens that a wild fig tree, as large 

 as a common English apple tree, rears itself from one of the thick branches 

 "of the top of the mora, and that numerous cHmbing epiphytes grow upon 

 the fig tree. The fig tree, in time, kills the mora, and the epiphytes the 

 fig tree. The birds are the agents that convey the seeds to the rotten 

 hollow stump, or decaying bark of the mora and fig. ( Watci^ton's Wander- 

 ings in South Americay Sfc.) 



