156 Mr Audubon's Account of the Carrion Crow. 



cavity. This opinion seems to be confirmed by the fact, that 

 none of the second fluid can be seen within the cavity, although 

 this may arise from the difficulty of examining the angular 

 portions of the cavity in the present state of the specimen. 



There is another very interesting peculiarity in this speci- 

 men of sapphire. It contains at one extremity of the fluid 

 cavity distinct groupes of transparent crystals, which haye, 

 no doubt, been deposited by the fluid. What these crystals 

 are, we are not entitled to conjecture, but if the cavity were 

 opened, it might be practicable to ascertain whether or not 

 they are sapphire. 



Art. XXV. — Account of the Carrion Crow, or Vultur atratus. 

 By Mr John James Audubon, Member of the Lyceum 

 of New York. Communicated by the Author. 



Although this bird is closely connected with the Turkey- 

 Buzzard (Vultur aura,) in many material points, yet the dif- 

 ference in their appearance and habits is sufficient to esta- 

 blish a difference of species. 



The first view of the carrion crow is disgusting, when 

 compared with that of the Vultur aura ; its head and neck re- 

 sembling in colour that of putrid matter. Its relative short- 

 ness, squareness, and clumsiness, together with its gait and 

 manner of flying, are characteristic of an individual less pow- 

 erful, and less deserving the high station which the carrion 

 crow possesses in the order of birds, which naturalists place 

 before eagles and falcons, so much its superior in every point 

 of view. 



Like the turkey-buzzard, the carrion crow doess not pos- 

 sess the power of smelling, a fact which 1 have ascertained by 

 numerous observations. 



It is not common for these birds to extend their flight over 

 the Alleghany Mountains. I have seldom seen them as far as 

 Cincinnati on the Ohio, though the Vultur aura is by no means 

 a scarce bird in the country around, and far above that place, 

 yet at particular times I have met with flocks of twenty, or 

 more in the neighbourhood of Louisville, Kentucky, not, how- 

 ever, with the true habits which they display in the south, 





