182 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



vnngs drooping, and, after rain, witli them spread and 

 elevated to catch, the rays of the sun. It has been 

 remarked by naturalists, that the flight of this bird is 

 laborious. T have paid attention to the vulture in 

 Andalusia, and to those in Guiana, Brazil, and the 

 West Indies, and conclude that they are birds of long, 

 even, and lofty flight. Indeed, whoever has observed 

 the aura vulture, will be satisfied that his flight is 

 wonderfully majestic, and of long continuance. 



This bird is above five feet from wing to wing 

 extended. You will see it soaring aloft in the aerial 

 expanse on pinions which never flutter, and which, at 

 the same time carry him through the fields of ether 

 with a rapidity equal to that of the golden eagle. In 

 Paramaribo the laws protect the vulture, and the 

 Spaniards of Angustura never think of molesting him. 

 In 1808, I saw the vultures in that city as tame as 

 domestic fowls ; a person who had never seen a vulture 

 w^ould have taken them for turkeys. They were very 

 useful to the Spaniards ; had it not been for them, the 

 refuse of the slaughter-houses in Angustura would have 

 caused an intolerable nuisance. 



otherspecies "^^^ commou black, short, square-tailed 

 of Vulture. yulture is gregarious ; but the aura vulture 

 is not so : for, though you may see fifteen or twenty of 

 them feeding on the dead vermin in a cane-field, after 

 the trash has been set fire to, still, if you have paid 

 attention to their arrival, you will have observed that 

 they came singly and retired singly ; and thus their 

 being all together in the same field was merely acci- 

 dental, and caused by each one smelling the effluvia as 

 he was soaring through the sky to look out for food. 

 I have watched twenty come into a cane-field ; they 



