20 THE VULTURE. 



pendous Mora tree* close by, whose topmost branch 

 had either been dried by time or blasted by the 

 thunder-storm. Upon this branch I killed the king 

 of the vultures, before he had descended to partake 

 of the savoury food which had attracted him to the 

 place. Soon after this another king of the vultures 

 came, and after he had stuffed himself almost to suf- 

 focation, the rest pounced down upon the remains 

 of the serpent, and stayed there till they had de- 

 voured the last morsel. 



I think I mentioned in the Wanderings, that I do 

 not consider the Vultur Aura gregarious, properly 

 so speaking ; and that I could never see it feeding 

 upon that which was not putrid. Often when I had 

 thrown aside the useless remains of birds and qua- 

 drupeds after dissection, though the Vultur Aura 

 would be soaring up and down all day long, still it 

 would never descend to feed upon them, or to carry 

 them off, till they were in a state of putrefaction. 



Let us here examine the actions of this vulture a 

 little more minutely. If the Vultur Aura, which, 

 as I have said above, I have never seen to prey upon 

 living animals, be directed by its eye alone to the 

 object of its food, by what means can it distinguish 

 a dead animal from an animal asleep ? or how is it 



*"The Mora, in Guiana, is a lofty timber tree, the topmost branch of which, 

 when naked with age, or dried by accident, is the favourite resort of the 

 toucan. It also frequently happens that a wild fig tree, as large as a com- 

 mon English apple tree, rears itself from one of the thick branches of the 

 top of the Mora, and that numerous climbing epiphytes grow upon the fig 

 tree. The fig tree, in time, kills the Mora, and the epiphytes the fig tree. 

 The birds are the agents that convey the seeds to the rotten hollow stump 

 or decaying bark of the Mora and fig." (Waterton'a Wanaerings m South 

 America, #c.) 



