THE GREAT CONDOR. 
13 
in parts of the West Indies^ there have been laws enacted to 
prevent the wilfnl destruction of these useful birds^ which 
act the part of scavengers^ and^ unlike those men^ entail no 
tax on the inhabitants for the payment of weekly^ monthly, 
or quarterly salaries. Waterton says^ that in Paramaribo the 
laws protect the vulture Wanderings/ p. 210)^ and that 
the Spaniards of Angustura never think of interfering with 
them. This naturalist, in 1808, saw the vultures in that city 
parading the streets like fowls, and one unaccustomed to 
the sight, might have taken them for turkeys. But for these 
scavengers, the refuse of the slaughter-houses in Angustura 
would have proved an intolerable nuisance, and might have 
been pestilential to the inhabitants. In a view of a South 
American city, given in Vaillant^s Voyage of the ^ Boriite,^ 
the vultures in the streets, like oiSBcially installed scavengers, 
form to the spectator a striking feature, while to the passers- 
by their presence seems a matter of course. 
The Condor vultures are peculiar to South America, and 
derive their scientific name SarcoramphuSy from the fleshy 
wattles attached to the membrane at the base of the beak. 
One of these^ the Great Condor {Sarcoramplms gryplms, PI. 
I. fig. 1), has been seen soaring high above the loftiest peak 
of the Andes ; the male of this has a ruff of white feathers 
