AVES-VULTURE. 



419 



any zoologist; for all the accounts of it with which we have met, are copied 

 from Le Vaillant. 



In size, this gigantic bird is fully equal to the condor ; the larger specimen 

 measuring, according to Le Vaillant, upwards of ten feet in the expanse 

 of their wings. The head, and greater part of the neck are of the color 

 of raw flesh, and exhibit in their adult state no appearance of down or 



feathers, but only a few scarcely perceptible, scattered hairs. The throat is 

 covered with blackish hairs, and the lower part of the neck behind, with a 

 kind of ruff of crisped and curled feathers of the same color ; Avithin which, 

 the bird withdraws its head while in a state of repose, especially after feed- 

 ing ; an attitude which is common to most of the vultures. 



As Le Vaillant is the only writer who has observed these birds in their 

 native state, our account of their manners must necessarily be derived from 

 his work, which contains more detailed and authentic information relative 

 to the habits of birds, than any other publication with which we are 

 acquainted, excepting only Wilson's admirable Ornithology. We shall, 

 therefore, inake no apology for abstracting his history of the present species, 

 with which he has combined many particulars equally applicable to the 

 whole family. Like all the other vultures, he says, this is a bird of the 

 mountains, the sheltered retreats formed by their caves and fissures con- 

 stituting its proper habitation. In them it passes the night, and reposes, 



