ORNITHOLOGY. 



559 



• the rest hovering above it. I rode within twenty yards of 

 ■'them; one of the largest of the birds was standing with 

 one foot on the ground, and the other on the horse's 

 body ; display of muscular strength as he lifted the flesh, 

 and tore off great pieces, sometimes shaking his head and 

 pulling with his beak, and sometimes pushing with his leg. 

 Got to Mendoza, and went to bed. Wakened by one of 

 my party who arrived ; he told me, that seeing the con- 

 dors hovering in the air, and knowing that several of them 

 w-ould be gorged, 1 he had also ridden up to the dead 

 horse, and that as one of these enormous birds flew about 

 fifty yards off, and was unable to go any farther, he rode 

 up to him ; and then, jumping off his horse, seized him by 

 the neck. The contest was extraordinary, and the ren- 

 contre unexpected. No two animals can well be imagin- 

 ed less likely to meet than a Cornish miner and a condor, 

 and few could have calculated, a year ago, when the one 

 was hovering high above the snowy pinnacles of the Cor- 

 dillera, and the other many fathoms beneath the surface 

 of the ground in Cornwall, that they would ever meet to 

 wrestle and ' hug' upon the wide desert plain of Villa- 

 Vicencia. My companion said he had never had such a 

 battle in his life ; that he put his knee upon the bird's 

 breast, and tried with all his strength to twist his neck ; 

 but that the condor, objecting to this, struggled violently, 

 and that also, as several others were flying over his head, 

 he expected they would attack him. He said, that at last 

 he succeeded in killing his antagonist, and with great pride 

 he showed me the large feathers from his wings; but 

 when the third horseman came in, he told us he had found 

 the condor in the path, but not quite dead." 2 



The king-vulture, S. papa (Plate CCCLXXXVIII. fig. 

 3), is a much more gaily adorned species, the fleshy por- 

 tions of its head and neck being red, orange, and purple. 

 The upper parts of the plumage are of a pale reddish-white 

 or clay colour, the collar at the base of the neck is bluish- 

 gray, the quill-feathers and tail black (the former with 

 paler edgings), and the under parts of the body white. 

 This beautiful bird is found in America, from the 30th 

 degree of north latitude, to about the 32d in the southern 

 hemisphere ; that is, it occurs in Mexico, Paraguay, Gui- 

 ana, Brazil, and Peru ; but most abundantly beneath the 

 torrid zone. According to Azara, it makes its nest in 

 hollow trees, and lays two eggs. It is supposed to derive 

 its name from its habit of driving off the common vultures 

 of America, called turkey buzzards, from their prey. The 

 female king-vulture is of somewhat smaller size than the 

 male. The ruff, and all the upper parts of her plumage, 

 are brownish black, and her bill is destitute of caruncles. 



Genus Cathartes, Illiger. Bill much more slender 

 than in the preceding genera ; the upper mandible inflat- 

 ed above the nostrils, encroaching as it were upon the 

 forehead, curved at the point, the margins nearly straight ; 

 the under mandible slender, slightly inflated, and obtuse 

 at the terminal portion. Cere extended. Nostrils broad, 

 quadrangular, longitudinal, very open. Head and neck 

 naked, without caruncles. Tongue fleshy, fringed. Tarsi 

 naked, rather feeble ; claws short, curved, blunt. Tail- 

 feathers twelve. 



This genus, as now restricted, is likewise confined to 

 America. It consists of two species, the common turkey 

 buzzard (so called in the United States), C. aura, Plate 

 CCCLXXXVIII. fig. 2, and the carrion-crow (of the same 

 country), C. atratus. The former is abundantboth in North 



and South America, and extends, in the central districts Raptores. 

 of the fur-countries, as far north as the 54-th degree. It ^~~~v~—' 

 is partially migratory, even in the middle states, retiring 

 southwards on the approach of winter. A few remain 

 throughout the year in Maryland, Delaware, and New 

 Jersey ; but none are known to breed in any of the Atlantic 

 States to the north of the one last named. In the interior, 

 however, they reach a much higher latitude during their 

 summer migrations, probably owing to the greater heat of 

 that season in the inland districts. A few make their ap- 

 pearance on the banks of the Saskatchewan when the 

 month of June is far advanced, and after all the other 

 summer birds have arrived and settled in their leafy ar- 

 bours. Though gregarious in more southern countries, 

 where they fly and feed in flocks, towards their northern 

 limits seldom more than a pair are seen together. They 

 feed on carrion, which they discover at a great distance, 

 it is now said, by the sense of sight alone. They some- 

 times eat with such gluttonous voracity as to be unable to 

 rise from the ground. They have been accused of at- 

 tacking pigs, beginning the assault by picking out their 

 e'yes. But Mr Waterton, during his residence in Deme- 

 rara, could not ascertain that they destroyed even living 

 reptiles. He killed lizards and frogs and placed them in 

 their way, but they took no notice of them till they began 

 to emit a putrid effluvia. He differs from Mr Audubon 

 in his ideas regarding the relative superiority in these 

 birds of the organs of sight and smell. The one thinks 

 the eyes have it, the other the ?iose. The turkey buzzard 

 hatches her eggs in some swampy solitude, on a truncat- 

 ed hollow tree or excavated stump or log, laying them on 

 the rotten wood. This species roosts at night on trees, 

 but more seldom than the other kind in flocks. In winter 

 they sometimes pass the night in numbers on the roofs of 

 houses in the suburbs of the southern cities, probably in- 

 duced to do so by the warmth which emanates from the 

 chimneys. On fine clear days, even in the winter season, 

 they amuse themselves by soaring majestically into the 

 air, rising rapidly in large gyrations ; and ascending be- 

 yond the thinnest fleecy clouds, they almost disappear 

 from mortal view. In South America they will sometimes 

 accompany the condor in his loftiest flights, rising, all 

 fetid though they be, above the region of the purest Alps ; 

 and thus exhibiting an emblem of the mind of man, so 

 often sunk in Epicurus' sty, yet for a time so raised by 

 god-like genius, as not seldom to perceive " far off the 

 crystal battlements of heaven." 



The other species of this genus is the black vulture, or 

 carrion-crow of the United States, C. atratus. It is rather 

 less than the preceding, measuring about twenty-six inch- 

 es in length, the general colour of the plumage dull black, 

 with a dark cream-coloured spot on the primaries. It is 

 more impatient of cold, and prevails chiefly about the 

 larger maritime cities of South Carolina, Georgia, and Flo- 

 rida. They seem, from Mr Douglas's account, to proceed 

 further north on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Although they rise at times to a considerable elevation, 

 their flight is less easy and graceful than that of the tur- 

 key buzzard. They are much more familiar, and in 

 Charleston and Savannah may be seen walking the streets 

 as demurely as domestic fowl. They sometimes become 

 individually known ; and a veteran with only one leg was 

 observed to visit the shambles, and claim the bounty of a 

 gentle butcher, for upwards of twenty years. 



" The manner in which the Guachos catch these hirds is to kill a horse and skin him ; and they sav that although not a con- 

 dor is to be seen, the smell instantly attracts them. When I was at one of the mines in Chili, I idly mentioned to a person that I 

 should like to have a condor : some days afterwards a Guacho arrived at Santiago from this person with three large ones. They had 

 ail been caught in this manner, and had been hung over a horse ; two had died of galloping, but the other was alive. I gave the 

 Guacho a dollar, who immediately left me to consider what I could do with three such enormous birds." 

 * Hough Notes across the Pampas. 



