BIRDS. TA 



appetite ; and their sense of smelling is so exquisite, tliat tlie 

 instant a carcase drops, we may see the vultures floating in the 

 air from all quarters, and come sousing on their prey." It is 

 supjiosed by some, that they eat nothing that has life ; but th;s 

 is only when they are not able ; for when they come at kvnbs, 

 they show no mercy ; and serpents are their ordinary food. The 

 manner of those birds is to perch themselves, several togetiier, 

 on the old pine and cypress-trees ; where they continue all the 

 morning, for several hours, with their wings unfolded ; nor are 

 they fearful of danger, but suffer people to approach them very 

 near, particularly when they are eating. 



The sloth, the filth, and the voraciousness, of these birds, 

 almost exceeds credibility. In the Brasils, where they are found 

 in greiit abundance, when they light upon a carcase, which they 

 have liberty to tear at their ease, they so gorge themselves that 

 they are unable to fly; but keep hopping along when they are 

 pursued. At all times, they are a bird of slow flight, and 

 unable readily to raise themselves from the ground ; but when 

 they have over-fed, they are then utterly helpless ; but they 

 soon get rid of their burden ; for they have a method of vomit- 

 ing up what they have eaten, and then they fly off with greater 

 facility. 



It is pleasant, however, to be a spectator of the hostilities 

 between animals that are thus hateful or noxious. Of all crea- 

 tures, the two most at enmity is the vulture of Brasil and the 

 crocodile. The female of this terrible amphibious creature, 

 which in the rivers of that part of the world grows to the size 

 of twenty-seven feet, lays its eggs, to the number of one or two 

 hundred, in the sands, on the side of the river, where they are 

 hatched by the heat of the climate. For this purpose, she takes 

 every precaution to hide from all other animals the place where 

 she deposits her burden : in the mean time a number of vul- 

 tures, or galinassos, as the Spaniards call them, sit silent and 

 unseen in the branches of some neighbouring forest, and view 

 the crocodile's operations, with the pleasing expectation of suc- 

 ceeding plunder. They patiently wait till the crocodile has laid 

 the whole number of her eggs, till she h.;s covered them care- 

 fully imder the sand, and until she is retired from them to a 

 convenient distance. Then, all together, encouraging each 

 other with ciies, they pour down -.iron the nest, hook up the 



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