180 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



the king of the vultures came too ; and I observed that 

 none of the common ones seemed inclined to begin 

 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 of The head and neck of the king of the 

 the vultures. vu i tures are b are of f ea thers ; but the beau- 

 tiful 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 down- 

 Avards, 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. 



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 wing-feathers are black, the belly white, and 

 the rest of the body a fine satin colour. 



I cannot be persuaded that the vultures ever feed 

 upon live animals, not even upon lizards, rats, mice, or 



