ANIMAL KINGDOM. 119 



garious, and very common, but principally in the neighbourhood 

 of towns and plantations, where they congregate in large numbers 

 to feed on the carcases of unburied animals, the offals from 

 slaughter-houses, and other putrid matters. They have been found 

 so useful in cleansing the towns from filth and putridity as to be 

 considered in the light of gratuitous scavengers, and hence are 

 tacitly exempted from being killed ; in fact, under the govern- 

 ment of Sir Thomas Picton and Sir Ralph Woodford, such an act 

 was punishable by fine. They, however, sometimes prove a great 

 nuisance from the offensive smell which exhales from the localities 

 in which they have established their abodes. They dispose of a 

 dead rat, fowl, or other small animal, in the space of a few 

 minutes; of a dog or cat in a few hours, and, in the country, 

 where animals dying on estates are left exposed, they will consume 

 the carcase of an ox or a horse in less than a week. It is really won- 

 derful how these birds become aware of the presence of carrion. 

 It may be that not one single vulture has been seen for weeks in a 

 locality, but no sooner is an animal dead, even a cat or rat, than 

 some corbeau is seen wheeling in the air above ; all on a sudden 

 it sweeps down with a peculiar hissing sound, and, after describing 

 a rapid circle, promptly alights on its prey ; others follow, and in 

 a few hours a host of them are collected on the spot. Sometimes 

 the corbeaux, as by some common accord, start in a body to 

 parade (to use the local expression), when numbers of them are 

 seen rising in the air and describing spirals, till they become 

 nearly imperceptible ; then one takes the lead, and the others 

 follow in a line, until they arrive at some place of rest or of prey. 

 The Carrion-crow is so familiar that it mixes in the market-places 

 of Port of Spain with the vendors, and sometimes carries away 

 from an incautious seller a piece of fish or flesh. 



The Papa, Aura, and Tota Vultures, build their nests on the 

 ground, generally near or between the roots of some tree ; at each 

 incubation they produce but a pair, which, in their unfledged state, 

 are covered with a purely white down. 



Falcons (Falco). There are several species of the Falcon 

 family in Trinidad ; they are called here Gravilans. The Crested 

 Gavilan (Spizactus venatus) is a large bird, grey in colour, with 

 a large head and an occipital tuft; the tarsi are strong and feathered 

 throughout. This bird is most ferocious, and will pick up a fowl 

 in the poultry-yard and carry it off, even within sight and cry of 



