DOT AGE Va VAC TE TE. 131 
allured thither by the quantity of dead salmon which, at cer- 
tain seasons, line the shores of that river. 
They are numerous in the West India islands, where they are 
said to be “far inferior in size to those of North America.”* 
This leads us to the inquiry whether or not the present species 
has been confounded by all the naturalists of Europe with 
the black vulture or carrion crow, which is so common in the 
southern parts of our continent. If not, why has the latter 
been totally overlooked in the numerous ornithologies and 
nomenclatures with which the world has been favoured, when 
it is so conspicuous and remarkable that no stranger visits 
South Carolina, Georgia, 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 carrion crow, 
which is of less size, has been mistaken for the former. In 
the history which follows, we shall endeavour to make it evident 
that the species described by Ulloa as being so numerous in 
South America is no other than the black vulture. The 
ornithologists of Europe, not aware of the existence of a new 
species, have without investigation contented themselves with 
the opinion that the bird called by the above-mentioned 
traveller the gallinazo was the Vultur aura, the subject of 
our present history. This is the more inexcusable, as we 
expect in naturalists a precision of a different character from 
that which distinguishes vulgar observation. If the EKuropeans 
* Pennant ; Arctic Zoology. 
7 The vulture which Sir Hans Sloane has figured and described, and 
which he says is common in Jamaica, is undoubtedly the Vultur aura. 
“The head, and an inch in the neck, are bare, and without feathers, of 
a flesh colour, covered with a thin membrane, 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, 
Natural History of Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 294, folio. 
