IN THE NORWICH MUSEUM. 9 
Vultures, three of which (one belonging to the genus 
Coragyps, and two to the genus Cathartes,) perform 
services as scavengers in many tropical cities of 
America, similar to those for which the African towns 
are indebted to the Vultures of the genus /Veophron. 
Nearly allied to these smaller scavengers are the 
two great American Vultures, the Cathartes cali/ornia- 
nus, or Californian Vulture of the Rocky Mountains, 
and the Gryphus condor, or Condor Vulture of the 
Andes, the latter being the largest bird of prey known. 
Both these species are remarkable for the extra- 
ordinary altitudes at which they are sometimes ob- 
served to soar, and from whence they can discern 
their distant prey. The Condor attacks with equal 
avidity the newly dropped and weakly calf, or the 
abandoned carcase of any animal which may have 
accidentally perished in the gorges of the Andes, or on 
the adjacent plains. 
The Californian Vulture is equally on the watch for 
such carcases as may occur in the territory over which 
its range extends, and both species frequently descend 
to the shores of the Pacific Ocean to prey upon 
stranded whales, or upon seals which have been 
abandoned, after the sealer has secured the fur or the 
oil for the sake of which these animals are constantly 
destroyed on the western coasts of the American 
continent. 
The remaining Vulture of the New World is that 
beautifully-coloured species (though the vivid hues of its 
