238 THE WORLDS LUMBER ROOM. 



The raven of Mexico and South Africa is of a different 

 and larger species than that known in the north. In 

 South America it seems to be altogether wanting, but its 

 place is well supplied by the numerous Caracaras and 

 the Gallinazo. The latter, called also Vulture Jota, Black 

 vulture, Zopilote, Urubu, and carrion-crow, is of the size 

 of a peahen, and, together with the Condor and King 

 vulture, belongs to the small family of "flesh-bearded 

 vultures." 



The Gallinazo, though seldom seen on the Atlantic, 

 north of Newbern, in North Carolina, is said to be found 

 at Detroit, Lake Erie, and is very common in the south, 

 where it ranges as far as Cape Horn. Its preference 

 is for a damp climate or the neighbourhood of water, and 

 it abounds throughout the pampas, is preserved as a sca- 

 venger in Peru, and is generally protected by law throughout 

 tropical America. 



In many of the towns and villages of the Southern 

 States it is as common as poultry, and may be seen 

 sauntering in the streets, loitering indolently for hours at 

 a time in one place, or sunning itself on the roofs and 

 fences, and cowering over the chimneys if the weather 

 be cold The townspeople, though disgusted by its filthy 

 voracity, and particularly by a most unpleasant habit of 

 disgorging its food down their chimneys sometimes, when 

 it has eaten too much, yet respect it as a valuable scavenger, 

 and, accordingly, it is protected either by law or custom. 



Don Ulloa speaks of the Gallinazo as familiar in 

 Carthagena, which it cleanses of all animal impurities, 

 and calls it an "excellent provision of nature," for in that 



