BLACK VULTURE. 
19 
perpetuated this slander, which is so absurd, that we -wonder how it could 
have escaped his animadversion. 
"It would be too great an undertaking," says Ulloa, "to describe all 
the extraordinary birds that inhabit this country ; but I cannot refrain 
from taking notice of that to which they give the name of Gallinazo, 
from the resemblance it has to the Turkey-hen. This bird is of the size 
of the Pea-hen, but its head and neck are somewhat larger. From the 
crop to the base of the bill there are no feathers ; and the skin, which 
is of a brownish black color, is wrinkled and rough, and covered with 
small wartvS and tubercles. Tlie plumage of the bird is also black. The 
bill is well proportioned, strong, and a little hooked. These birds are 
familiar in Carthagena, the tops of the houses are covered with them. 
They are very serviceable, in cleansing the city of all its animal impuri- 
ties. There are few animals killed whereof they do not obtain the 
offals ; and when this food is wanting, they have recourse to other filth. 
Their sense of smelling is so acute, that it enables them to trace carrion 
at the distance of three or four leagues ; which they do not abandon until 
there remains nothing but the skeleton. 
" The great number of these birds found in such hot climates, is an 
excellent provision of nature ; as otherwise, the putrefaction caused by 
the constant and excessive heat, would render the air insupportable to 
human life. When first they take wing, they fly heavily ; but afterwards 
they rise so high as to be entirely invisible. On the ground they walk 
sluggishly. Their legs are well proportioned ; they have three toes for- 
Tvard, turning inwards, and one in the inside, inclining a little backwards, 
so that the feet interfering, they cannot walk with any agility, but are 
obliged to hop ; each toe is furnislied with a long and stout claw. 
" When the Gallinazos are deprived of carrion, or food in the city, 
they are driven by hunger among the cattle of the pastures. If they 
see a beast with 'a sore on the back, they alight on it, and attack the 
part affected ; and it avails not that the poor animal throws itself upon 
the groimd, and endeavors to intimidate them with its bellowing : they 
do not quit their hold!* and by means of their bill they so soon enlarge 
the wound, that the animal finally becomes their prey."f 
The account, from the same author, of the beneficial effects resulting 
* The faculty of prehension^ wliieh is possessed, in a remarkable degree, by the 
whole of the Falco tribe, but slightly appertains to Vultures, as is evidenced by 
their feet and claws; hence all the stories which are related, of their seizing upon 
their prey, and beai-ing it off in their talons, are apocryphal. We would extend this 
remark to the far-famed Condor, whose history has been embellished with feats of 
strength, not a little allied to the marvellous. 
t Voyage Historique de I'Amerique JT^ridionale, par Don George Juan, et Don 
Antoine De Ulloa, liv. I., chap, viii., p. 52. A Amsterdam ct Leipzig, 1752, 
quarto. 
