BLACK VULTURE. 17 



are furnished ■with rows of spikes ; others are capped, or provided with 

 some apparatus, to hinder the birds from alighting upon them. 



The Black Vultures are indolent, and may be observed, in companies, 

 loitering for hours together in one place. They are much darker in 

 their plumage than the Turkey-buzzard. Their mode of flight also varies 

 from that of the latter. The Black Vulture flaps its wings five or six 

 times rapidly, then sails with them extended nearly horizontally ; the 

 Turkey-buzzard seldom flaps its wings, and when sailing, they form an 

 upward angle with the body. The latter is not so impatient of cold as 

 the former, and is likewise less lazy. The Black Vulture, when walk- 

 ing at leisure upon the ground, takes great strides — when hurried he 

 runs and jumps awkwardly ; the Turkey-buzzard, though seemingly 

 inactive, moves with an even gait. The former, when springing from the 

 ground, will sometimes make a noise exactly resembling the grunt of a 



pig- 



I had been informed, previously to my visit to Georgia, by both "Wil- 

 liam Bartram, and Mr. John Abbot, that the two species did not asso- 

 ciate ; but I soon discovered that this information was erroneous. I took 

 notice that both of these birds mixed together upon the chimney tops, 

 and the roofs of the houses, and sometimes in the streets ; they were 

 equally unsuspicious and tame. It would appear, however, that there 

 are certain districts which are affected by each kind. In the yard of the 

 hotel where I resided, in the town of Savannah, I daily observed num- 

 bers of Carrion Crows, unaccompanied by a single Turkey-buzzard. The 

 latter, unless pressed by hunger, will not eat of a carcass until it be- 

 comes putrid ; the former is not so fastidious, but devours animal food 

 without distinction. Perhaps this may be the reason why the Carrion 

 Crows alone frequent the yards, where servants are in the habit of throw- 

 ing out animal offals. In the fields, wherever there is a putrid carcass, 

 there will be seen swarms of Turkey-buzzards. 



It is said that the Black Vultures sometimes attack young pigs, and 

 eat off their ears and tails ; and we have even heard stories of their 

 assaulting feeble calves, and picking out their eyes. But these instances 

 are rare ; if otherwise, they would not receive that countenance or pro- 

 tection, which is so universally extended to them, in the states of South 

 Carolina and Georgia, where they abound. 



In one of Wilson's journals, I find an interesting detail of the greedy 

 and disgusting habits of this species ; and shall give the passage entire, 

 in the same unadorned manner in which it is written. 



"February 21, 1809. Went out to Hampstead* this forenoon. A 

 horse had dropped down in the street, in convulsions ; and dying, it was 

 dragged out to Hampstead and skinned. The ground, for a hundred 



* Near Charleston, South Carolina. 

 Vol. L— 2 



