162 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



their productions, perhaps the few observations 

 contained in these Wanderings may be of service 

 to thee; excuse their brevity: more could have 

 been written, and each bird more particularly de- 

 scribed, but it would have been pressing too hard 

 upon thy time and patience. 



Soon after arriving in these parts, thou wilt find 

 that the species here enumerated are only as a 

 handful from a well-stored granary. Nothing has 

 been said of the Eagles, the Falcons, the Hawks, 

 and Shrikes; nothing of the different species of 

 Vultures, the king of which is very handsome, and 

 seems to be the only bird which claims regal hon- 

 ours from a surrounding tribe. It is a fact beyond 

 all dispute, that when the scent of carrion has 

 drawn together hundreds of the common vultures, 

 they all retire from the carcass as soon as the 

 King of the Vultures makes his appearance. 

 When his majesty has satisfied the cravings of his 

 royal stomach with the choicest bits from the most 

 stinking and corrupted parts, he generally retires 

 to a neighbouring tree, and then the common vul- 

 tures return in crowds to gobble down his leav- 

 ings. The Indians, as well as the whites, have 

 observed this; for when one of them, who has 

 learned a little English, sees the king, and wishes 

 you to have a proper notion of the bird, he says, 

 * ' There is the governor of the carrion crows. ' ' 



Now, the Indians have never heard of a per- 

 sonage in Demerara higher than that of governor ; 

 and the colonists, through a common mistake, call 

 the vultures carrion crows. Hence, the Indian, 

 in order to express the dominion of this bird over 

 the common vultures, tells you he is governor 



