THE BLACK VULTURE. 17 



than otherwise. The greater part of the feathers upon the back are of a beautiful 

 satiny white, tinged more or less deeply with fawn, and the abdomen is of a pure white. 

 On account of its colour, the bird is termed the White Crow by the Spaniards of 

 Paraguay. The long pinions of the wing and tail are deep black, and the base of 

 the neck is surrounded with a thick ruff or collar of downy grey feathers. 



The most brilliant tints are, however, those of the naked skin of the head and neck. 

 " The throat and back of the neck," says Waterton, " are of a fine lemon colour ; both 

 sides of the neck, from the ears downwards, of a rich scarlet ; behind the corrugated part 

 there is a wliite spot. The crown of the head is scarlet, betwixt the lower mandible and 

 the eye, and close by the ear, there is a part which has a fine silvery-blue appearance. 

 Just above the white spot a portion of the skin is blue, and the rest scarlet ; the skin 

 which juts out behind the neck, and appears like an oblong caruncle, is blue in part, and 

 part orange. The bill is orange and black, the caruncles on the forehead orange, and the 

 cere orange, the orbits scarlet, and the irides white." 



These gorgeous tints belong only to the adult bird of four years old, and in the 

 previous years of its life the colours are very obscure. In the first year, for example, 

 the general colour is deep blue-grey, the abdomen white, and the crest hardly distinguish- 

 able either for its colour or its size. In the second year of its age the plumage of the bird 

 is nearly black, diversified with white spots, and the naked portions of the head and neck 

 are violet-black, interspersed with a few dashes of yellow. The third year gives the 

 bird a very near approach to the beautiful satin fawn of the adult plumage, the back 

 being nearly of the same hue as that of the four-year-old bii'd, but marked with many of 

 the blue-black feathers of the second year. When full grown, the King Vulture is about 

 the size of an ordinary goose. 



All the Sarcorhamphidre are natives of America, some of them, such as the condor and 

 the king vulture, being comparatively scarce, while others are so common that they swarm 

 like sparrows in our streets. One of the commonest of these useful but repulsive birds is 

 the Black Vultuke, Zopilote, or Urubu, which together with the turkey buzzard and 

 the Californian Vultiire are placed in one genus, termed, characteristically of their habits, 

 Catharista, or Cleanser. 



The Black Vulture bears so close a resemblance to the turkey buzzard tliat it hfis 

 often been confounded with that bird by superficial obsei-vers. It may, however, be 

 readily distinguished by the shape of tlie feathers round its neck, which in the turkey 

 buzzard form a circular ring completely round the throat, while in the Black Vulture they 

 descend from the back of the head towards the throat in a sloping direction. The shape 

 of the bill is more slender, and the nostrils not so rounded as in the turkey buzzard. 

 The general colour of the Black Vulture is a dull black ; the primaries are, however, 

 rather wliite on the inside, and their shafts are also white. The head and part of the 

 neck are devoid of feathers, and covered with a black wrinkled skin sparely furnished 

 with short scattered black hairs in front, and down behind. The throat has a wash of 

 ochreous yellow. Tlie length of the bird is rather more than two feet, and the expanse of 

 its wings is about four feet four inches. 



It is a high-flying bird, sweeping through the air with a beautifully easy fliglit, and 

 often accompanied by the Mississippi kite, which seems to be drawn towards tlie Zopilote 

 by some common feeling. After the bird has been gorging itself with the putrid meat 

 which it so loves, it gives forth a most horrible stench. But after it has fasted for some 

 time, the unpleasant odour nearly vanishes ; and even when the body of the bird is laid 

 open, the only scent which it exhales is a rather strong mu.sky perfume. 



The predaceous birds are, like the predaceous beasts, possessed of most powerful 

 appetites, being capable of eating and digesting an amount of food which is perfectly 

 astonishing. As, however, they cannot hope lor a constant supply of nourishment, 

 they are gifted with the capability of enduring hunger for a veiy long time without 

 appearing to suffer very severely from their protracted fast. When in search of food, the 

 Zopilote ascends to a vast height in the air, rising indeed to so great an elevation, that 

 it can hardly be distinguished as a black speck, even whea the attention of a spectator 

 2. c 



