1 22 INTRODUCTION. 



sary gout, sit around in solemn silence, and their 

 head withdrawn in the ruff, their wings partly 

 drooping, they convey the very picture of gloomy 

 scavengers. But if I were to judge from a living 

 specimen which had been entrapped in an adult 

 state, and which I possessed for several weeks 

 while in the interior of Guiana, I would not be 

 astonished to see the king of vultures, when hard 

 pressed by hunger, regaling itself on fresh fish. The 

 individual to which I allude never declined to eat 

 the fish which was thrown in a fresh state before 

 him ; for that purpose, he kept his food with his 

 talons, and spread his wings, picking the flesh from 

 the bones if the fish was large, but swallowing it 

 entire if of a small size. '■ 



We thus dose the long list of enemies which the 

 finny tribe of the mighty rivers of Guiana possess ; 

 but if we consider the extraordinary fecundity of 

 fish, it is not to be wondered at that there is still 

 such an abundance as to afford nourishment to 

 man, to whose sustenance the whole creation has 

 been made subservient. 



Such of the Guiana fresh- water fishes as might 

 prove of economical use to mankind are exceedingly 

 numerous. The many noble streams of these fertile 

 regions are in general stocked with fish, although at 

 present they profit only a few. At the period that 

 the inundations subside, and the granite dykes 

 which cross the rivers of the interior are no more 

 covered by the waters, parties of men proceed from 

 * Annals of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 259. 



