SOUTHERN AFRICA. 267 
Birds, as well as beafts of prey, are attraded to fuch places 
as abound with game. By the Sea- Cow river, vultures were 
more numerous than they had hitherto been feen in any part 
of the country. Of thefe were diftinguiflied three forts ; the 
large black condor, the percnoptertis^ or Egyptian facred vulture, 
and a third that feemed to differ from the fecond only in fize, 
being no more than two feet long. The female alfo of this 
bird, as well as that of the percnopterus, is diftinguifhed from 
the whitifh-colored male by its plumage of duflcy brown. 
This fmall fpecies is called by the peafantry the white crow. 
The facred fcavenger of Egypt meets not here with that pro- 
tection which was afforded it on the banks of the Nile, where, 
according to Herodotus, to deftroy it was a capital crime. 
The percnopterus is a gregarious bird. They fly in troops 
that feldom confifl of fewer than fifty ; and they are generally 
attended with two or three condors, as many of the fmall white 
kind, and a whole flock of the vulturine crow. An animal is 
no fooner fhot than they appear hovering at an immenfe height 
in the air, from whence they plunge down the moment that the 
carcafe is left alone. 
Snakes of different forts were feen and killed daily, all of 
them, according to the Hottentots' information, more or lefs 
venemous. Thefe people are not unacquainted with feveral 
interefling particulars as to the nature and habits of the animal, 
as well as the vegetable part of the creation. From one I 
learned a very extraordinary effedt produced by the applica- 
tion of the oil of tobacco to the mouth of a fnake. One of 
thefe reptiles, about two feet in length, and of a blueiih color, 
M M 2 had 
