KING OF THE YULTUEES. 
15 
Whenever the vulture-monarch has satisfied the cravings 
of his royal stomach with the choicest bits from the most 
stinking and corrupted parts^ he generally retires to a 
neighbouring tree, and then the common vultures return in 
crowds to gobble down his leavings^^ (p. 146). So well 
observed a fact is this, that when one of the Indians of 
Demerara has learned a little English, and, on seeing the 
king, wishes to give you a proper notion of the bird, not 
knowing any person in Demerara higher than the official 
so named, he says, There is the Governor of the carrion 
crows. ■'^ Through all the Spanish Main the bird is called 
Key de Zamuros,^^ or king of the vultures. 
The turkey buzzard of America [CatJiartes aura) is a 
small vulture, belonging to the genus Cathartes, which re- 
sembles the condors in the beak being long and provided 
with longitudinal oval nostrils, and differs from it in the 
absence of wattles at the base of the beak. 
Mr. Wallace describes the black vultures as being some- 
times rather hard-pressed for want of food, and as obliged 
sometimes to betake themselves to palm-fruits. On the 
banks of the Eio Negro he was not a little amused to see 
these scavengers run after the pigs the moment they were 
up, to secure their droppings. The pigs would sometimes 
