150 WANDERINGS IN 



his appearance. When his majesty has satisfied 



f . 



the cravings- of his royal stomach with the choicest 

 bits from the most stinking and corrupted parts, 

 he generally retires to a neighbouring tree, and 

 then the common vultures return in crowds to 

 gobble down his leavings. The Indians, as well 

 as the Whites, have observed this ; for when one 

 of them, who has learned a little English, sees 

 the king, and wishes you to have a proper notion 

 of the bird, he says, " There is the governor of 

 the carrion crows." 



Now, the Indians have never heard of a per- 

 sonage in Demerara higher than that of governor ; 

 and the colonists, through a common mistake, 

 call the vultures carrion crows. Hence the In- 

 dian, in order to express the dominion of this 

 bird over the common vultures, tells you he is 

 governor of the carrion crows. The Spaniards 

 have also observed it, for, through all the Spanish 

 Main, he is called Rey de Zamuros, king of the 

 vultures. The many species of owls, too, have not 

 been noticed ; and no mention made of the colum- 

 bine tribe. The prodigious variety of water fowl, 

 on the sea-shore, has been but barely hinted at. 



There, and on the borders and surface of the 

 inland waters, in the marshes and creeks, besides 

 the flamingos, scarlet curlews, and spoonbills, 

 already mentioned, will be found ; greenish-brown 

 curlews, sandpipers, rails, coots, gulls, pelicans, 

 jabirus, nandapoas, crabiers, snipes, plovers, 



