BLACK VULTURE. 
17 
are furnislied with rows of spikes ; others are capped, or provided with 
some apparatus, to hinder the birds from alighting upon them. 
The Black Vultures are indolent, and may be observed, in companies, 
I'oitering for hours together in one place. They are much darker in 
their plumage than the Turkey-buzzard. Their mode of flight also varies 
from that of the latter. The Black Vulture flaps its wings five or six 
times rapidly, then sails with them extended nearly horizontally ; the 
Turkey-buzzard seldom flaps its wings, and when sailing, they form an 
upward angle with the body. The latter is not so impatient of cold as 
the former, and is likewise less lazy. The Black Vulture, when walk- 
ing at leisure upon the ground, takes great strides — when hurried he 
runs and jumps awkwardly ; the Turkey-buzzard, though seemingly 
inactive, moves with an even gait. The former, when springing from the 
ground, will sometimes make a noise exactly resembling the grunt of a 
pig- 
I had been informed, previously to my visit to Georgia, by both Wil- 
liam Bartram, and Mr. John Abbot, that the two species did not asso- 
ciate ; but I soon discovered that this information was erroneous. I took 
notice that both of these birds mixed together upon the chimney tops, 
and the roofs of the houses, and sometimes in the streets ; they were 
equally unsuspicious and tame. It would appear, however, that there 
are certain districts which are aflfected by each kind. In the yard of the 
hotel where I resided, in the town of Savannah, I daily observed num- 
bers of Carrion Crows, unaccompanied by a single Turkey-buzzard. The 
latter, unless pressed by hunger, will not eat of a carcass until it be- 
comes putrid ; the former is not so fastidious, but devours animal food 
without distinction. Perhaps this may be the reason why the Carrion 
Crows alone frequent the yards, where servants are in the habit of throw- 
ing out animal offals. In the fields, wherever there is a putrid carcass, 
there will be seen swarms of Turkey-buzzards. 
It is said that the Black Vultures sometimes attack young pigs, and 
eat olf their ears and tails ; and we have even heard stories of their 
assaulting feeble calves, and picking out their eyes. But these instances 
are rare ; if otherwise, they would not receive that countenance or pro- 
tection, which is so universally extended to them, in the states of South 
Carolina and Georgia, where they abound. 
In one of Wilson's journals, I find an interesting detail of the greedy 
and disgusting habits of this species ; and shall give the passage entire, 
in the same unadorned manner in which it is written. 
" February 21, 1809. Went out to Ilampstead* this forenoon. A 
horse had dropped down in the street, in convulsions ; and dying, it was 
dragged out to Hampstead and skinned. The ground, for a hundred 
* Near Charleston, South Carolina. 
Vol. I.— 2 
