143 



in the United Slates, appears to be generally confined to the 

 narrowest limits of the Southern States, being scarcely touna 

 beyond Wilmington in North Carolina, and seems to be most 

 numerous and lamiliar in the large maritime towns of South 

 Carolina, Georgia and Florida; thus, though abundant in 

 Savannah, there are much fewer of this species at Augusta 

 than of the Turl<ey Vulture. In the tropical regions of Amer- 

 ica they are also very common, and extend, at least, as far 

 as Chili. Like the former species, with which they associate 

 only at meal-times, they are allowed a public protection for 

 the service they render in ridding the earth of carrion and 

 other kinds of filth. They are much more familiar in the 

 towns than the preceding; delighting, during winter, to remain 

 on the roofs of houses, catching the feeble rays of the sun. 

 and stretching out their wings to admit the warm air over 

 their foetid bodies. When the weather becomes unusually 

 chilly, or in the mornings, they may be seen basking upon the 

 chimneys in the warm smoke, which, as well as the soot itself. 

 can add no additional darkness or impurity to such filthy and 

 melancholy spectres. Here, or on the limbs of some of the 

 largei trees, tliey remain in listless indolence until aroused 

 by the calls of hunger. 



WELL TREATED IN THE SOUTH. 



"Their flight is neither so easy nor so graceful as that of 

 the Turkey Buzzard. They flap their wings and then soar 

 horizontally, renewing the motion of their pinions at short in- 

 tervals. At times, however, they rise to considerable eleva- 

 tions. In the cities of Charleston and Savannah the-y are to 

 be seen in numbers walking the streets with all the familiarity 

 of domestic fowls, examining the channels and accumulations 

 of filth in order to glean up the offal, or animal matter of any 

 kind, which may happen to be thrown out. They appeared 

 to be very regular in their attendance around the shambles, 

 and some of them become known by sight. This was particu- 

 larly the case with an old veteran who hopped upon one foot 

 (having by some accident lost the other), and had regularly 

 appeared round the shambles to claim the bounty of the 

 butchers for about twenty years. In the country, ^'here 1 have 

 surprised them feeding in the woods, they apppeared rather 

 shy and timorous, watching my movements alertly like hawks, 

 and every now and then one or two of them, as they sat in the 

 high boughs of a neighboring oak, communicated to the rest, as 

 I slowly approached, a low bark of alarm or waugh, something 

 like the suppressed growl of a puppy, at which the whole 

 flock by degrees deserted the dead hog upon which they hap- 

 pened to be feeding. Sometimes they will collect together 

 about one carcass to the number of 250 and upwards, and the 

 object, whatever it may be. is soon robed in living mourning, 

 scarcely anything being visible but a dense mass of these 

 sable scavengers, who may often be seen jealously contending 

 with each other, both in and out of the carcass, defiled wifli 

 blood and filth, holding on with their feet, hissing and clawing 

 each other, or tearing off morsels so as to fill their throats 

 nearly to choking, and occasionally joined by growling dogs- 

 the whole presenting one of the most savage and disgusting 

 scenes in nature, and truly worthy the infernal bird of Pro- 

 metheus." 



