164 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



justly remarks, implies neither respect nor consideration; 

 but is the natural efiect of its superiority in size and 

 strength. 



Like the other Vultures these birds perform a most 

 important office in the economy of nature, by the 

 removal of dead and putrefying carrion. Their sight 

 is wide and piercing, their sense of smell highly deve- 

 loped, and their strength of wing sufficient to enable 

 them to reach an extremely high pitch and to continue 

 their flight for hours together. They endure the pangs 

 of hunger with extraordinary patience ; and never attack 

 the smallest bird or the most feeble quadruped while it 

 has life. In walking their gait is slow and heavy, and 

 their body is maintained in a horizontal position. When 

 about to mount into the air they are compelled to take 

 several leaps before they can accomplish their purpose, 

 and quit the ground with some little difficulty. The 

 odour of their flesli is precisely the same with that of 

 the carrion on which they feed, and even their skins 

 retain it for many years. Contrary to the habits of 

 their family in general, they perch on the tallest trees, 

 living solitary or in pairs, building their nests, as it is 

 said, in the hollows of the trunks, and laying only two 

 eggs. They are little inclined to become familiar with 

 man, but on the contrary avoid his habitations, and 

 betake themselves every where to the interior and 

 unfrequented parts of the country. In a deficiency of 

 carrion they feed upon snakes and lizards, and during 

 the summer subsist in a great measure upon the putrid 

 fish of the lakes that are dried up by the parching heat 

 of the sun. 



The Society's specimen, an adult bird in remarkably 

 fine plumage, was sent from Venezuela by Admiral 

 Fleming. 



