SOUTH AMERICA. 149 



Their breast is adorned with beautiful changing SECOND 



3 JOURNEY. 



blue and purple feathers; their head and neck 



like velvet ; their wings and back grey, and belly 

 black. They run with great swiftness, and when 

 domesticated, attend their master in his walks, 

 with as much apparent affection as his dog. They 

 have no spurs, but still, such is their high spirit 

 and activity, that they browbeat every dunghill 

 fowl in the yard, and force the Guinea birds, 

 dogs and turkies to own their superiority. 



If, kind and gentle reader, thou shouldst ever 

 visit these regions with an intention to examine 

 their productions, perhaps the few observations 

 contained in these wanderings may be of service 

 to thee : excuse their brevity : more could have 

 been written, and each bird more particularly 

 described, but it would have been pressing too 

 hard upon thy time and patience. 



Soon after arriving in these parts, thou wilt 

 find that the species here enumerated are only as 

 a handful from a well-stored granary. Nothing 

 has been said of the eagles, the falcons, the 

 hawks, and shrikes ; nothing of the different 

 species of vultures, the king of which is very 

 handsome, and seems to be the only bird which 

 claims regal honours from a surrounding tribe. 

 It is a fact beyond all dispute, that when the 

 scent of carrion has drawn together hundreds of 

 the common vultures, they all retire from the 

 carcass as soon as the king of the vultures makes 



