VULTURES— BUZZARDS. 



695 



or common American Carrion Vultures ( Vultur aura, V. urubu), are very serviceable 

 to him, by consuming the animal offals which, if left to putrefaction, would produce a 

 pestilence. Thus they generally, in tropical America, enjoy the protection of the law, 

 a heavy fine, amounting in some towns to $300, being imposed upon the offender 

 who wantonly kills one of these scavengers. It is consequently not to be wondered 

 at that, like domestic birds, they congregate in flocks in the streets of Lima, and sleep 

 upon the roofs of the houses. In 1808, Waterton saw the vultures in Angostura as 

 tame as barn-fowls ; a person who had never seen one would have taken thera for 

 turkeys. They were very useful to the citizens ; bad it not been for them, the refuse 

 of the slaughter-houses would have caused an intolerable nuisance. The Aura is dark- 

 brown black, with a red and naked head and neck, covered with wrinkles and warts ; 

 the Urubu is very similar, only the head and neck are gray-black, but equally wrinkled 

 and ugly. The latter ranges over South America in countless numbers, as D'Orbigny 

 witnessed on a visit to a hacienda on the river Plata, where 12,000 oxen had been 

 killed for salting. During this wholesale massacre, which lasted several months, the 

 bones and entrails were cast along the banks of the stream, where at least 10,000 

 urubus had congregated to enjoy the banquet. It is a remarkable fact that, though 

 hundreds of gallinazos may be feeding upon a carcase, they immediately retire when 

 the King of the Vultures {Sarcoramphus papa) makes his appearance, who yet is not 

 larger than themselves. Perching on the neighboring trees, they wait till his majesty 

 — a beautiful bird, with head and neck gaudily colored with scarlet, orange, blue, 

 brown and white — has sufficiently gorged himself, and then pounce down with increased 

 voracity upon their disgusting meal. According to Humboldt, they are intimidated 

 by the greater boldness of the sarcoramphus. The true reason of their homage, how- 

 ever, seems to be the fear they entertain for the more powerful beak of the ** king," 

 who, from a similar motive, gives way to the still mightier condor. 



The Indians of Guiana sometimes amuse themselves with catching one of the urubus 

 by means of a piece of meat attached to a hook, and decking him with a variety of 

 strange feathers, which they attach to him with soft wax. Thus travestied, they turn 

 him out again among his comrades, who, to their great delight, fly in terror from the 

 nondescript ; and it is only after wind and weather have stripped him of his finery 

 that the outlaw is once more admitted into urubu society. When full of food this vul- 

 ture, like the other members of his tribe, certainly appears an indolent bird. He will 

 stand for hours together on the branch of a tree, or on the top of a house, with his 

 wings drooping, or after rain, spreading them to catch the rays of the sun. But when 

 in quest of prey, he may be seen soaring aloft on pinions which never flutter, and 

 which at the same time carry him with a rapidity equal to that of the golden eagle. 

 Scarcely has he espied a piece of carrion below, when, folding his broad wings, he 

 descends with such speed as to produce a whistling sound, resembling that of an arrow 

 cleaving the air. 



The gallinazos when taken young can be so easily tamed that they will follow the 

 person who feeds them for many miles. Belying on their inviolability, the gallinazos, 

 like chartered libertines, are uncommonly bold, and during the distributions of meat 

 to the Indians, which regularly take place every fortnight in the South American 

 Missions, they not seldom come in for their share by dint of impudence. In Concep- 

 cion de Mojos, an Indian told M. D'Orbigny, who was present on one of those occasions. 



