THE VULTURE. 137 



rusty black, and the Gallinazos or Black Vultures 

 (Catharistes atratus), which look uncommonly like 

 our scavenger, only dipped in ink, the colours of 

 sovereign and sweeper being practically reversed; 

 It is a curious fact that the Old and New World 

 Vultures, like the monkeys of the two worlds, can 

 most readily be separated by the form of the nostrils ; 

 the difierence in the case of the birds being that in 

 the Eastern Vultures there is a partition between 

 the nostrils as in most animals, whereas in the Western 

 family this is absent, and you can look right through 

 the beak from one side to the other. The American 

 Vultures also have weaker feet and do not build 

 nests ; and they have no voice-muscles, so that they 

 can only hiss. Their Eastern relatives, though not 

 taloned like eagles, are more powerful in the extre- 

 mities, and even carry nesting material therewith 

 for they build large unwieldy nests on trees or rocks ; 

 and they are sufficiently well endowed with a vocal 

 apparatus to vent their afEections in horrid bellowings 

 at the breeding season. Our Vultures here build 

 large rough nests in trees, of fresh boughs torn ofi by 

 main strength, and the plebeians are sociable, nesting 

 in colonies ; royalty, of course, can tolerate no 

 neighbouring rivals. As a rule, they only lay one 

 egg ; a large fertility is not necessary to keep up the 

 numbers of birds which run so few risks as Vultures 



