$S# Faculty of Scent in the Vulture* 



that I could never see it feeding upon that which was not 

 putrid. Often, when I had thrown aside the useless remains 

 of birds and quadrupeds after dissection, though the Fultur 

 Aura would be soaring up and down all day long, still it 

 would never descend to feed upon them, or to carry them 

 oft^ till they were in a state of putrefaction. 



Let us here examine the actions of this vulture a little 

 more minutely. If the Fultur Aura, which, as I have said 

 above, I have never seen to prey upon living animals, be 

 directed by its eye alone to the object of its food, by what 

 means can it distinguish a dead animal from an animal 

 asleep ? or, how is it to know a newly dead lizard or a snake, 

 from a lizard or a snake basking quite motionless in the 

 sun ? If its eye be the director to its food, what blunders 

 must it not make in the negro-yards in Demerara, where 

 broods of ducks and fowls are always to be found, the day 

 through, either sleeping or basking in the open air. Still, 

 the negro, whom habit has taught to know the ^ultur Aura 

 from a hawk, does not consider him an enemy. But let a 

 hawk approach the negro-yard, all will be in commotion, and 

 the yells of the old women will be tremendous. Were you 

 to kill a fowl, and place it in the yard with the live ones, it 

 would remain there unnoticed by the vulture as long as it 

 was sweet ; but, as soon as it became offensive, you would 

 see the Fultur Aura approach it, and begin to feed upon it, 

 or carry it away, without showing any inclination to molest 

 the other fowls which might be basking in the neighbour- 

 hood. When I carried Lord Collingwood's despatches up 

 the Orinoco, to the city of Angustura, I there saw the com- 

 mon vultures of Guiana nearly as tame as turkeys. The 

 Spaniards protected them, and considered them in the light 

 of useful scavengers. Though they were flying about the 

 city in all directions, and at times perching upon the tops of 

 the houses, still many of the people, young and old, took 

 their siesta [afternoon's nap] in the open air, " their custom 

 always of the afternoon," and had no fear of being ripped 

 up and devoured by the surrounding vultures., If the 

 vulture has no extraordinary powers of smelling, which 

 faculty, I am told, is now supposed to be exploded since the 

 appearance of the article in Jameson's Journal^ I marvel to 

 learn how these birds in Angustura got their information, 

 that the seemingly lifeless bodies of the Spaniards were 

 merely asleep, — 



" Dulcis et alta qiiies, placidaeque simillima morti," 

 " Sweet sleep, and deep, and like to placid death," — 

 and were by no means proper food for them. 



