14 
TURKEY VULTURE. 
gia, or the Spanish provinces, but is immediately struck with the novelty 
of its appearance ? We can find no cause for the Turkey-buzzards of 
the islands* being smaller than ours, and must conclude that the Car- 
rion Crow, Avhich is of less size, has been mistaken for the former. In 
the histor}^ which follows, we shall endeavor to make it evident that the 
species described by Ulloa, as being so numerous in South America, is 
no other than the Black Vulture. 
Kolben, in his account of the Cape of Good-Hope, mentions a Vul- 
ture, which lie represents as very voracious and noxious : " I have 
seen," says he, "many carcasses of cows, oxen and other tame creatures 
which the Eagles had slain. I say carcasses, but they were rather 
skeletons, the flesh and entrails being all devoured, and nothing remain- 
ing but the skin and bones. But the skin and bones being in their 
natural places, the flesh being, as it were, scooped out, and the wound, 
by which the Eagles enter the bo'ly, being ever in the belly, you Avould 
not, till you had come up to the skeleton, have had the least suspicion 
that any such matter had happened. The Dutch at the Cape frequently 
call those Eagles, on account of their tearing out the enti'ails of Ijeasts, 
tStrunt- Vogcls^ i. e. Dung-birds. It frequently happens, that an ox that 
is freed from the plough, and left to find his way home, lies down to rest 
liimself !iy the way ; and if he does so, 'tis a great chance but the 
Eagles upon him ami devour him. They attack an ox or cow in a 
body, consisting of an hundred and upwards. "f 
BuiTon conjectures that this murderous Vulture is the Turkey-buzzard ; 
and concludes his history of the latter with the following invective against 
the whole fraternity : " In every part of the globe they are voracious, 
slothful, offensive and hateful, and, like the wolves, are as noxious during 
their life, as useless after their death." 
It turns out, however, that this ferocious Vulture is not the Turkey- 
buzzard, as may be seen in Levaillant's " Ilistoire Naturelle des Oiseaux 
d'Afrique," vol. i, jil. 10, where the Chasse-fiente, or Strunt-Vogel, is 
figured and described. The truth of Kolben's story is doubtful ; and 
we Avould express our regret, that enlightened naturalists should so 
readily lend an ear to the romances of travellers, who, to excite aston- 
* The Vulture which Sir Hans Sloane fiirnred and described, and whleli he says 
is common in Jamaica, is undoubtedly the Viil/iir aura; " The head and an inch in. 
the neck are bare and without feathers, of a flesh color, covered with a thin mem- 
brane, like that of turkeys, with which the most part of the bill is covered likewise : 
bill (below the membrane) more than an inch long, whitish at the point ; tail broad 
and nine inches long; legs and feet three inches long; it flies exactly like a kite, 
and preys on nothing licing, but when dead it devours their carcasses, whence they 
are not molested." Sloane, Nat. Hist. Jam. vol. n., p. 294, folio. 
t Medley's Kolben, vol. ii. p. 135. 
