14 TURKEY VULTURE. 



gia, or the Spanish provinces, but is immediately struck with the novelty 

 of its appearance ? We can find no cause for the Turkey-buzzards of 

 the islands* being smaller than ours, and must conclude that the Car- 

 rion Crow, which is of less size, has been mistaken for the former. In 

 the history which follows, we shall endeavor to make it evident that the 

 species described by Ulloa, as being so numerous in South America, is 

 no other than the Black Vulture. 



Kolben, in his account of the Cape of Good-Hope, mentions a Vul- 

 ture, which he represents as very voracious and noxious : "I have 

 seen," says he, " many carcasses of cows, oxen and other tame creatures 

 which the Eagles had slain. I say carcasses, but they were rather 

 skeletons, the flesh and entrails being all devoured, and nothing remain- 

 ing but the skin and bones. But the skin and bones being in their 

 natural places, the flesh being, as it were, scooped out, and the wound, 

 by which the Eagles enter the body, being ever in the belly, you would 

 not, till you had come up to the skeleton, have had the least suspicion 

 that any such matter had happened. The Dutch at the Cape frequently 

 call those Eagles, on account of their tearing out the entrails of beasts, 

 Strunt- Vogels, i. e. Dung-birds. It frequently happens, that an ox that 

 is freed from the plough, and left to find his way home, lies down to rest 

 himself by the way ; and if he does so, 'tis a great chance but the 

 Eagles fall upon him and devour Mm. They attack an ox or cow in a 

 body, consisting of an hundred and upwards. "f 



Buffon conjectures that this murderous Vulture is the Turkey-buzzard ; 

 and concludes his history of the latter with the following invective against 

 the whole fraternity : " In every part of the globe they are voracious, 

 slothful, offensive and hateful, and, like the wolves, are as noxious during 

 their life, as useless after their death." 



It turns out, however, that this ferocious Vulture is not the Turkey- 

 buzzard, as may be seen in Levaillant's " Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux 

 d'Afrique," vol. i, pi. 10, where the Chasse-fiente, or Strunt- Vogel, is 

 figured and described. The truth of Kolben's story is doubtful ; and 

 we would express our regret, that enlightened naturalists should so 

 readily lend an ear to the romances of travellers, who, to excite aston- 



* The Vulture which Sir Hans Sloane figured and described, and which he says 

 is ooinmon in Jamaica, is undoubtedly the VuUur aura; " The head and an inch in 

 the neck are bare and without feathers, of a flesh color, covered with a thin mem- 

 brane, like that of turkeys, with which the most part of the bill is covered likewise ; 

 bill (below the membrane) more than an inch long, whitish at the point ; tail broad 

 and nine inches long; legs and feet three inches long; it flies exactly like a kite, 

 and preys on nothing living, but when dead it devours their carcasses, whence they 

 are not molested." Sloane, Nat. Hist. Jam. vol. ii., p. 294, folio. 



t Medley's Kolben, vol. ii. p. 135. 



