BLACK VULTURE. 135 
and weighed five pounds one ounce avoirdupois. On dissection 
it emitted a slight musky odour. 
The vulture is included in the catalogue of those fowls de- 
clared unclean and an abomination by the Levitical law, and 
which the Israelites were interdicted eating.* We presume 
that this prohibition was religiously observed, so far at least 
as it related to the vulture, from whose flesh there arises such 
an unsavoury odour, that we question if all the sweetening 
processes ever invented could render it palatable to Jew, Pagan, 
or Christian. 
Since the above has been ready for the press, we have seen 
the History of the expedition under the command of Lewis 
and Clark, and find our conjecture with respect to the migra- 
tion of the turkey buzzard verified, several of this species 
having been observed at Brant Island, near the Falls of the 
Columbia. 
BLACK VULTURE, OR CARRION CROW. 
(Vultur jota.) 
PLATE LXXV.—Fie. 2. 
Vultur jota, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 247.—Molina, Hist. Chili, i. p. 185, Am. trans. 
—Zalipot, Clavigero, Hist. Mex. i. p. 47, Eng. trans.—Gallinazo, Ulloa, Voy. 
i. p. 52, Amsterdam ed.—Vultur atratus, Bartram, p. 289.—Vautour du 
Brésil, Pl. enl. 189.—Vultur aura, B. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 5.—Le Vautour 
urubu, Viel. Ois. del Am. Sep. i. p. 23, pl. 2.—Peale’s Museum, No. 18. 
VULTUR JOLA.—BONAPARTE.t 
Vultur jota, Bonap. Synop. p. 23.—Cathartes atratus, North. Zool. ii. p. 6. 
AtrHoucH an account of this vulture was published more 
than twenty years ago by Mr William Bartram, wherein it 
* Leviticus xi. 14 ; Deuteronomy xiv. 13. 
+ History of the Expedition, vol. i1. p. 233, 
~ Mr Swainson, in a note to the description of this bird in the 
“Northern Zoology,” remarks, as a reason for changing the name given by 
Bonaparte—“ We have not considered it expedient to apply to this bird 
the scientific name of Iota, given by Molina to a black vulture of Chili, 
