218 WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD o f t ne common ones seemed inclined to begin 



JOURNEY. 



breakfast till his majesty had finished. When he 



had consumed as much snake as nature informed 

 him would do him good, he retired to the top of 

 a high mora-tree, and then all the common 

 vultures fell to, and made a hearty meal. 



The King The head and neck of the king of the vultures 



of the Vul- 

 tures, are bare of feathers ; but the beautiful appearance 



they exhibit, fades in death. The throat and the 

 back of the neck are of a fine lemon colour ; both 

 sides of the neck, from the ears downwards, of a 

 rich scarlet ; behind the corrugated part, there is 

 a white spot. The crown of the head is scarlet ; 

 betwixt the lower mandible and the eye, and close 

 by the ear, there is a part which has a fine silvery 

 blue appearance ; the corrugated part is of a dirty 

 light brown ; behind it, and just above the white 

 spot, a portion of the skin is blue, and the rest 

 scarlet ; the skin which juts out behind the neck, 

 and appears like an oblong caruncle, is blue in 

 part, and part orange. 



its bin. The bill is orange and black, the caruncles on 



his forehead orange, and the cere orange ; the 

 orbits scarlet, and the irides white. Below the 

 bare part of the neck there is a cinereous ruff. 

 The bag of the stomach, which is only seen 

 when distended with food, is of a most delicate 

 white, intersected with blue veins, which appear 

 on it just like the blue veins on the arm of a 

 fair-complexioned person. The tail and long 



