120 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



(C. Urulu), says Ulloa, " found in hot climates, is an 

 excellent provision of nature ; as otherwise the 

 putrefaction caused by the constant and excessive 

 heat would render the air insupportable to human 

 life. These birds are familiar in Carthagena ; the 

 tops of the houses are covered with them : it is 

 they who cleanse the city of all its animal impuri- 

 ties. There are few animals killed whereof they 

 do not obtain the offals; and when this food is 

 wanting, they have recourse to other garbage." The 

 following account of the same bird is in Wilson's 

 best manner. 



" A horse had dropped down in the street in con- 

 vulsions, and, dying, it was dragged out to Hamp- 

 stead and skinned. The ground for a hundred yards 

 around it was black with carrion crows ; many sat 

 on the tops of sheds, fences, and houses within sight ; 

 sixty or eighty on the opposite side of a small run. 

 I counted at one time two hundred and thirty-seven, 

 but I believe there were more, besides several in 

 the air over my head, and at a distance. I ventured 

 cautiously within thirty yards of the carcass, where 

 three or four dogs and twenty or thirty vultures 

 were busily tearing and devouring. Seeing them 

 take no notice, I ventured nearer, till I was within 

 ten yards, and sat down on the bank. Still they 

 paid little attention to me. The dogs, being some- 

 times accidentally flapped with the wings of the vul- 

 tures, would growl and snap at them, which would 

 occasion them to spring up for a moment, but they 

 immediately gathered in again. I remarked the 

 vultures frequently attack each other, fighting with 

 their claws or heels, striking like a cock, with open 

 wings, and fixing their claws in each other's head. 

 The females, and, I believe, the males like wise, made 

 a hissing sound, with open mouth, exactly resem- 

 bling that produced by thrusting a redhot poker 

 into water ; and frequently a snuffling, like a dog 

 clearing his nostrils, as 1 suppose they were theirs. 



