VULTU RE. 



825 



of America, of whose size, strength, and daring, so 

 many marvellous tales have been told, that had there 

 been any such animals as elephants in South America, 

 it is highly probable that we should have had an 

 account, " by eye-witnesses," of the condor flying 

 clear over Chimberazo with an elephant in its cla\vs. 

 We have no room to go into its history, and it is not 

 necessary, as it may be found any where, since Hum- 

 boldt brought it within reason and reasonable dimen- 

 sions. It is only a little larger than the mountain 

 vulture of the Alps, and its habits are nearly the 

 same ; but the appendages to the naked part of the 

 bird bring it more within the present section. The 

 colour is blackish, with great part of the wings ash, 

 and the collar on the neck silky and white. The 

 male has one large carunculated membrane above the 

 hill, and another below ; but these are wanting in the 

 female. The female is nearly of a uniform greyish 

 brown ; and the young in their first plumage are ash 

 brown, and without the collar of feathers upon the 

 neck. Even after all the exaggerations are discounted, 

 the condor is a bird of no small interest. It is the 

 most lofty- dwelling bird of the whole class ; and the 

 regions of storm and earthquake which it inhabits are 

 of themselves well calculated to give it a very pecu- 

 liar importance. 



CATHARTUS are the vultures of North America, 

 some of which have occasionally been confounded 

 with the condor; and, though none of them are equal 

 to that bird in story, they rival, if not exceed it, in 

 size and in power. We cannot go into the details of 

 all the species, of which there are several ; and 

 therefore we shall give a few particulars of one as a 

 specimen. 



Californian Vulture (C. vulturinus). This is a 

 very large bird, about four feet and a half in length, 

 and nearly ten feet in the stretch of the wings. It 

 inhabits North America to the westward of the 

 Stony Mountains, and is particularly abundant in 

 the lower valley of the Columbia. It is a woodland 

 bird, and does not appear to inhabit very high lati- 

 tudes, though, like the vultures of the eastern hemi- 

 sphere, it is more northerly in the summer than in 

 the winter. Their general colour is brown, without 

 any very decided markings ; they nestle in the thick 

 woods, choosing the tallest pines in the wildest and 

 most inaccessible parts of the mountain valleys. The 

 nest is composed of sticks and coarse grass, and the 

 pair occupy it for many years in succession. The 

 eggs are two, of a jet black colour, nearly round, and 

 about the size of those of a goose. The hatching 

 time is about the first of June, and the incubation 

 lasts about thirty days. The young are at first 

 covered with whitish down, and five or six weeks 

 elapse before they are able to quit the nest. 



Where these birds inhabit is truly a vulture's coun- 

 try, as the turns of the seasons are particularly violent 

 both on land and at sea. Many land animals are 

 beaten down by the rains, or overtaken by the swell- 

 ing rivers ; and when the storm abates, the wreck 

 both of the land and the water is great. This is in- 

 discriminately eaten by the vultures, which make 

 common prize both of fishes and of land animals, and 

 heed not much how far they may be gone in putre- 

 faction. Their senses are keen, especially their sense 

 of sight, and we shall not enter upon the disputed 

 keenness of the sense of smell in vultures, which, to 

 say the best, appears to have been most gratuitously 

 exaggerated. When on the reconnoitre, or tracking 



the progress of a wounded animal, they fly very high ; 

 and, though there may not be one in sight when it 

 falls, the carcase of a large animal speedily attracts a 

 number of vultures ; and they come to a recent car- 

 case just as readily as to a tainted one, to that which 

 does not smell with the same readiness as to that 

 which does, and this is against the common notion of 

 the acuteness of their scent. Indeed the fetid dis- 

 tillation from their own nostrils is a pretty strong 

 argument against their smelling power ; a man with 

 his nose constantly bathed in assafoetida would not 

 be in the best condition for finding roses by the scent. 

 " Their voracity," says the lamented David Douglas, 

 "is almost insatiable, and they are extremely ungene- 

 rous, suffering no other animal to approach them 

 while feeding. After eating they become so sluggish 

 and indolent as to remain in the same place, until 

 urged by hunger to go in quest of another repast. 

 At such times they perch on decayed trees, with 

 their heads so much retracted as to be with difficulty 

 observed through the long, loose, lanceolate feathers 

 of the collar ; the wings at the same time hang down 

 over the feet. This position they invariably preserve 

 in dewy mornings, or after rains. Except after eating, 

 or while guarding their nest, they are so excessively 

 wary that the hunter can scarcely ever approach 

 sufficiently near for even buck-shot to take effect on 

 them, the fulness of the plumage affording them a 

 double chance of escaping uninjured. Their flight is 

 slow, steady, and particularly graceful, gliding along 

 with scarcely any apparent motion of the wings, the 

 tips of which are curved upward in flying. They 

 are seen in greatest numbers, and soar highest, before 

 hurricanes and thunder-storms. Their quills are used 

 by the hunters as tubes for tobacco-pipes." 



The Turkey Vulture (C. aura) is another American 

 species of smaller size, and more generally distributed. 

 It is about two feet and a half in length, and six feet 

 in the expanse of the wings. The upper parts are 

 nearly black, with some white markings, and the 

 lower parts sooty brown. They are common in the 

 United States, but leave the northern ones in the 

 winter. 



The Black Vulture (C. atratus) is a darker and 

 smaller species ; and so familiar that it frequents the 

 towns, and plies as a scavenger in the streets, in which 

 office it is protected by the inhabitants. It is about 

 two feet two inches in length, and four feet four inches 

 in the stretch of the wings. The general colour is 

 dull black, with some white on the insides of the pri- 

 mary quills. It is a dull and sluggish bird, and the 

 smell of it is peculiarly offensive. 



PERCNOI>TERCS Black wings. These have the 

 beak long, slender, a little bulged out of the middle 

 of the lower mandible ; the nostrils oval, longitudinal ; 

 the head only, and no part of the neck, bare of fea- 

 thers. These are birds of moderate size, not nearly 

 equalling the vultures properly so called ; but still 

 they very greedily devour carrion and all sorts of 

 garbage, and rather than want they gorge the most 

 foul and offensive substances. They are found in 

 both continents. 



Egyptian Vulture (P. Icncocephalux}. This is also, 

 from its abundance in Egypt, called " Pharaoh's 

 chicken." It is about the size of a raven. The cheeks 

 and throat are naked ; the general plumage of the 

 male bird white, with the quills black. The female 

 and the young are brown. This species ranges pretty 

 discursively over the eastern continent ; and it is the 



