164 CLASS AVES. 



and the Namaquois call it ghaip. It abides and constructs its 

 nest in the clefts of the rocks. It lays two or three white eggs. 

 The young are born in the month of January. 



We give a figure here from Major Smith of a vulture of a 

 distinct, and probably a new species : — that gentleman names 

 it V. Nuhicus, or Macrocephalus, and thus describes it : " It 

 is a bird of the largest size, equal to Gypaetos Barbatus, with 

 the head considerably larger, and thereby also clearly distin- 

 guished from V. Indicus — bill, cera, and legs, white ; head 

 naked, ruff brown ; back and wings brownish, ochery, and 

 grayish ; white down each side of the neck ; breast white, with 

 a few pointed streaks ; vent feathers buff ; thighs white and 

 brown, feathers downy. Shot in Nubia." 



The King of the Vultures ( V. papa) is termed Zopilote 

 papa, by M. Vieillot ; the first name being that given to a 

 genus by that naturalist, embracing the Condor, &c. The 

 various denominations given to this South American bird ori- 

 ginate in the idea, that it is so much respected by the aura 

 and uruhu, that they recede from a dead body the moment 

 this vulture descends upon it, and give him place. This, 

 however, says M. D'Azara, is neither the effect of respect nor 

 consideration ; it is merely the fear of superior size and 

 strength. It is called in Cayenne, king of the couroumous ; 

 and the Guaranis of Paraguay call it iriburubicha. This spe- 

 cies is extended in the New Continent, from the thirtieth degree 

 of north latitude to the thirty-second degree of south latitude ; 

 but its numbers increase in proportion as we approach the 

 torrid zone. It is found in Peru, Brazil, Guiana, Paraguay, 

 and Mexico. It must not be confounded with the coz-quauhtli 

 of the Mexicans, as some ornithologists, especially Brisson 

 and BufFon, have confounded it. This last bird is the aura, 

 which Laertius has described in his Historia Nova Orbis. 

 But the coz-quauhtli of Hernandez and Fernandez (regina 

 aurarum), appears, from its Latin denomination, to be the 

 King of the Vultures. 



