38 



AMERICAN VULTURE. 



motion, mount and fall, without any visible mov- 

 ing of their wings. A dead carcass will attract 

 together great numbers of them, and *tis pleasant 

 to observe their contentions in feeding. An Eagle 

 sometimes presides at the banquet, and makes 

 them keep their distance while he satiates himself 

 This bird (the Carrion Vulture) has a wonderful 

 sagacity in smelling. No sooner there is a beast 

 dead, but they are seen approaching from, all 

 quarters of the air, wheeling about, and gradually 

 descending and drawing nigh their prey, till at 

 length they fall upon it. They are generally 

 thought, not to prey on any thing living, though I 

 have known them kill lambs; and snakes are their 

 usual food. Their custom is to roost, many of them 

 together, on tall dead pine or cypress-trees, and 

 in the morning continue several hours on their 

 roost, with their wings spread open; I believe, 

 that the air may have the greater influence to 

 purify their filthy carcasses. They are little ap- 

 prehensive of danger, and will suffer a near ap- 

 proach, especially when they are eating." 



At the first landing of the English in Jamaica, 

 (says Sir Hans Sloane) by the bareness and colour 

 of the skin on the head, they took this bird for a 

 Turkey, and killed several of them in several places 

 for such ; but soon found themselves deceived with 

 their stinking and lean bodies, which they almost 

 always have." 



Mr. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, observes 

 that these birds are common from Nova Scotia to 

 Terra del Fuego, but swarm in the hotter parts of 



