THE VULTURE. 21 
to know a newly dead lizard or a snake, from a lizard 
or a snake basking quite motionless in the sun? If 
its eye be the director to its food, what blunders 
must it not make in the negro-yards in Demerara, 
where broods of ducks and fowls are always to be 
found the day through, either sleeping or basking in 
the open air. Still the negro, whom habit has 
taught to know the Vultur Aura from a hawk, does 
not consider him an enemy. But let a hawk ap- 
proach the negro-yard, all will be in commotion, and 
the yells of the old women will be tremendous. 
Were you to kill a fowl and place it in the yard with 
the live ones, it would remain there unnoticed by 
the vulture as long as it was sweet; but, as soon as 
it became offensive, you would see the Vultur Aura 
approach it, and begin to feed upon it, or carry it 
away, without showing any inclination to molest the 
other fowls which might be basking in the neigh- 
bourhood. When I carried Lord Collingwood’s 
despatches up the Orinoco, to the city of Angus- 
tura, I there saw the common vultures of Guiana 
nearly as tame as turkeys. The Spaniards protected 
them, and considered them in the light of useful 
scavengers. Though they were flying about the 
city in all directions, and at times perching upon 
the tops of the houses, still many of the people, 
young and old, took their siesta in the open air, 
“their custom always of the afternoon,” and had 
no fear of being ripped up and devoured by the 
surrounding vultures. If the vulture has no ex- 
traordinary powers of smelling, which faculty, I am 
c 3 
