TURKEY VULTURE. 17 



and must conclifde that the Carrion-crow, which is of less size, 

 has been mistaken for the former. In the history which follows, 

 we shall endeavour to make it evident that the species describ- 

 ed by Ulloa, as being so numerous in South America, is no 

 other than the Black Vulture. 



Kolben, in his account of the Cape of Good-Hope, mentions 

 a Vulture, which he represents as very voracious and noxious: 

 66 1 have seen," says he, "many carcasses of cows, oxen and 

 other tame creatures which the Eagles had slain. I say carcas- 

 ses, but they were rather skeletons, the flesh and entrails being 

 all devoured, and nothing remaining but the skin and bones. 

 But the skin and bones being in their natural places, the flesh 

 being, as it were, scooped out, and the wound, by which the 

 Eagles enter the body, being ever in the belly, you would not, 

 till you had come up to the skeleton, have had the least suspi- 

 cion that any such matter had happened. The Dutch at the Cape 

 frequently call those Eagles, on account of their tearing out the 

 entrails of beasts, Strunt- Vogels, i. e. Dung-birds. It frequent- 

 ly happens, that an ox that is freed from the plough, and left to 

 find his way home, lies down to rest himself by the way; and 

 if he does so, 'tis a great chance but the Eagles ./a// upon him 

 and devour him. They attack an ox or cow in a body, consist- 

 ing of an hundred and upwards."* 



Buffon conjectures that this murderous Vulture is the Turkey- 

 buzzard ; and concludes his history of the latter with the follow- 

 ing invective against the whole fraternity: "In every part of 

 the globe they are voracious, slothful, offensive and hateful, and, 

 like the wolves, are as noxious during their life, as useless af- 

 ter their death." 



It turns out, however, that this ferocious Vulture is not the 

 Turkey-buzzard, as may be seen in Levaillant's " Histoire Na- 

 turelle des Oiseaux d' Afrique," vol. i, pi. 10, where the Chasse- 



loiig 1 , whitish at the point; tail broad and nine inches long"; leg's and feet 

 three inches long-; it flies exactly like a Kite, and preys on nothing living, but 

 when dead it devours their carcasses, whence they are not molested." Sloane, 

 Nat. Hist. Jam. vol. n, p. 294, folio. 



* Medley's Kolben, vol. u, p. 135. 

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