THE FACULTY OF SCENT IN THE VULTURE. 24* 



the Vultur aura of Guiana, the king of the vultures of terra fir ma, 

 and the vulture which is found in European Andalusia. I am inti- 

 mately acquainted with all these useful scavengers; and I have 

 never known any of them to kill the food upon which they feed ; or 

 when they are in a complete state of nature, free from the restraint 

 or allurements of man, ever feed upon that which was not putrid. 

 Having slain the large serpent mentioned in the " Wanderings/' 

 though I wished to preserve the skeleton, still I preferred to forego 

 the opportunity, rather than not get the king of the vultures. I called 

 Daddy Quasshi, and another negro, and we carried the body into the 

 forest. The foliage of the trees where we laid it was impervious to 

 the sun's rays, and had any vultures passed over that part of the 

 forest, I think I may say with safety that they could not have seen 

 the remains of the serpent through the shade. For the first two days 

 not a vulture made its appearance at the spot, though I could see 

 here and there, as usual, a Vultur aura gliding, on apparently im- 

 movable pinion, at a moderate height, over the tops of the forest 

 trees. But during the afternoon of the third day, when the carcass 

 of the serpent had got into a state of putrefaction, more than twenty 

 of the common vultures came and perched upon the neighbouring 

 trees, and the next morning, a little after six o'clock, I saw a magni- 

 ficent king of the vultures. There was a stupendous mora-tree close 

 by, whose topmost branch had either been dried by time or blasted 

 by the thunder-storm. Upon this branch I killed the king of the 

 vultures, before he had descended to partake of the savoury food 

 which had attracted him to the place. Soon after this another king 

 of the vultures came, and after he had stuffed himself almost to 

 suffocation, the rest pounced down upon the remains of the serpent, 

 and stayed there till they had devoured the last morsel. 



I think I mentioned in the " Wanderings," that I do not consider 

 the Vultur aura gregarious, properly so speaking ; and 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 Vultur aura would be soaring up and down 

 all day long, still it would never descend to feed upon them, or to 

 carry them off, till they were in a state of putrefaction. 



Let us here examine the actions of this vulture a little more 



