WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 257 



The tail and long wing-feathers are black, the belly 

 white, and the rest of the body a fine satin colour. 



I cannot be persuaded that the vultures ever feed upon 

 live animals, not even upon lizards, rats, mice, or frogs ; I 

 have watched them for hours together, but never could see 

 them touch any living animals, though innumerable lizards, 

 frogs, and small birds swarmed all around them. I have 

 killed lizards and frogs, and put them in a proper place for 

 observation ; as soon as they began to stink, the Aura 

 vulture invariably came and took them off. I have fre- 

 quently observed, that the day after the planter had burnt 

 the trash in a cane-field, the aura vulture was sure to be 

 there, feeding on the snakes, lizards, and frogs which had 

 suffered in the conflagration. I often saw a large bird 

 (very much like the common gregarious vulture at a dis- 

 tance) catch and devour lizards ; after shooting one, it 

 turned out to be not a vulture, but a hawk, with a tail 

 squarer and shorter than hawks have in general. The 

 vultures, like the goatsucker and woodpecker, seem to be 

 in disgrace with man. They are generally termed a 

 voracious, stinking, cruel, and ignoble tribe. Under these 

 impressions, the fowler discharges his gun at them, and 

 probably thinks he has done well in ridding the earth of 

 such vermin. 



Some governments impose a fine on him who kills a 

 vulture. This is a salutary law, and it were to be wished 

 that other governments would follow so good an example. 

 I would fain here say a word or two in favour of this 

 valuable scavenger. 



Kind Providence has conferred a blessing on hot 

 countries in giving them the vulture ; he has ordered it to 

 consume that which, if left to dissolve in putrefaction, 

 would infect the air, and produce a pestilence. When full 

 of food, the vulture certainly appears an indolent bird ; he 



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