SOUTH AMERICA. 221 



had never seen a vulture would have taken them TIIIRD 



JOURNEY. 



for turkies. They were very useful to the 



Spaniards ; had it not been for them, the refuse 

 of the slaughter-houses in Angustura would have 

 caused an intolerable nuisance. 



The common black, short, square-tailed vulture other 



i i i / species of 



is gregarious ; but the aura vulture is not so ; for, vulture. 

 though you may see fifteen or twenty of them 

 feeding on the dead vermin in a cane- field, after 

 the trash has been set fire to, still, if you have 

 paid attention to their arrival, you will have 

 observed that they came singly and retired singly ; 

 and thus their being altogether in the same field 

 was merely accidental, and caused by each one 

 smelling the effluvia as he was soaring through the 

 sky to look out for food. I have watched twenty 

 come into a cane-field ; they arrived one by one, 

 and from different parts of the heavens. Hence 

 we may conclude, that though the other species of 

 vulture are gregarious, the aura vulture is not. 



If you dissect a vulture that has just been 

 feeding on carrion, you must expect that your 

 olfactory nerves will be somewhat offended with 

 the rank effluvia from his craw ; just as they 

 would be were you to dissect a citizen after the 

 Lord Mayor's dinner. If, on the contrary, the 

 vulture be empty at the time you commence the 

 operation, there will be no offensive smell, but 

 a strong scent of musk. 



I had long wished to examine the native haunts 



