208 WANDERINGS IN 



Third siiake as iiaturc informed him would do him good, he 



Journey. 



retired to the top of a high Mora-tree, and then all the 



common Vultures fell to, and made a liearty meal. 

 The King The head and neck of the King of the Vultures are 



of the 



Vultures, bare of feathers ; but the beautiful appearance they 

 exhibit, fades in death. The throat and the back of the 

 neck are of a fine lemon colour ; both sides of the neck, 

 from the ears downwards, of a rich scarlet ; behind the 

 corrugated part, there is a white spot. The crown of 

 the head is scarlet ; betwixt the lower mandible and the 

 eye, and close by the ear, there is a part whicli has a fine 

 silvery blue appearance ; the corrugated part is of a dirty 

 light brown ; behind it, and just above the white spot, 

 a portion of the skin is blue, and the rest scarlet ; the 

 skin Avhich juts out behind the neck, and appears like an 

 oblong caruncle, is blue in part, and part orange. 



Its bill. The bill is orange and black, the caruncles on his fore- 



head orange, and the cere orange ; the orbits scarlet, and 

 . the irides white. Below the bare part of the neck there 

 is a cinereous ruff^. The bag of the stomach, which only 

 appears when distended with food, is of a most delicate 

 white, intersected with blue veins, which appear on it 

 just like the blue veins appear on the arm of a fair-com- 

 plexioned person. The tail and long wing-feathers are 

 black, the belly white, and the rest of the body a fine 

 satin colour. 



I cannot be persuaded that the Vultures ever feed upon 



4* 



