BLACK VULTURE. 139 
their necks along the ground, as if to press the food down- 
wards.” 
The carrion crow is seldom found on the Atlantic to the 
northward of Newbern, North Carolina,* but inhabits the 
whole continent to the southward, as far as Cape Horn. Don 
Ulloa, in noticing the birds of Carthagena, gives an account 
of a vulture, which we shall quote, in order to establish the 
opinion, advanced in the preceding history, that it is the pre- 
sent species. We shall afterwards subjoin other testimony 
in confirmation of this opinion. With respect to the mar- 
vellous tale of their attacking the cattle in the pastures, it is 
too improbable to merit a serious refutation. 
“Tt would be too great an undertaking to describe all the 
extraordinary birds that inhabit this country ; but I cannot 
refrain from noticing that to which they give the name of 
gallinazo, from the resemblance it has to the turkey-hen. 
This bird is of the size of a pea-hen, but its head and neck are 
something larger. From the crop to the base of the bill it 
has no feathers: this space is surrounded with a wrinkled, 
glandulous, and rough skin, which forms numerous warts and 
other similar inequalities. ‘This skin is black, as is the plumage 
of the bird, but usually of a brownish black. The bill is well 
proportioned, strong, and a little hooked. These birds are 
familiar in Carthagena; the tops of the houses are covered with 
them ; it is they which cleanse the city of all its animal im- 
purities. ‘There are few animals killed whereof they do not 
obtain the offals; and when this food is wanting, they have 
recourse to other filth. Their sense of smelling is so acute, 
that it enables them to trace carrion at the distance of three 
or four leagues, which they do not abandon until there remains 
nothing but the skeleton. 
“The great number of these birds found in such hot 
climates is an excellent provision of nature, as otherwise the 
* Since writing the above, I have been informed by a gentleman who 
resides at Detroit, on Lake Erie, that the carrion crow is common at 
that place. 
