364 
The King of the Carrion Crows. 
to west, an undercurrent of air was driving tlie lower-hanging cloud- 
masses exactly in tlie opposite or at least a different quarter of the 
compass. It was of a morning, of an evening, and especially in the 
neighbourhood of the larger forests that this phenomenon particularly 
took place; it certainly must spread in all directions the particular 
smell of slaughtered or dead animals that is followed by the Cathartes, 
which probably sniffs tlie atmosphere around for indications of the 
presence of its meal until it is found. The bird is at the same time so 
perfect at making skeletons that one might imagine the bcnes had been 
cleaned most carefully of their flesh with a knife. 
9S4. I never succeeded in finding their nests, which the Indians 
say are built in crevices of the rocks and generally contain but two eggs. 
On the coast, however, according to general report, they are built on the 
ground in the sugaiVeane fields. One to two months’ old birds which 
T found in an Indian settlement, had a covering quite like our young 
geese and swans, except that the down was dirty white : their note exactly 
resembled that of young swans. 
985. I was able to confirm the extremely remarkable and striking 
phenomenon which now and again has been doubted, that the King 
Vulture ( Vultur papa Linn.), the local King of the Carrion CroAvs, not 
only demands royal honours and sovereign reverence, by some sort of 
forced instinct as it were, but also receives the deepest respect from the 
whole family of carrion-kites. 
980. The Vultur papa is far from being as plentiful as the former, 
and is always to be found solitary, except when some carrion happens to 
attract several together, though even then the number does not exceed 
from three to six. It generally attains I he size of a turkey, in 
connection with which the skin of its head and nape shines with the 
most brilliant colours, which, unfortunately, completely fade at death. 
Throat and nape are bright orange, the sides of the neck, from the ears 
down, are on the contrary brilliant scarlet, a colouring also possessed by 
the cartilaginous fleshy crest, while the portion of skin between the eyes 
and lower chin, in the neighbourhood of the ears, slips in with a blue. 
Surrounded with a red ring of skin, the eyes themselves are of a scarlet 
colour, in which the brilliant white iris becomes all the more prominent. 
The wrinkled portion of the skin is a dirty light brown which below and 
behind the warts alternates with blue and scarlet. The beak itself is 
coloured orange and black, while the crop, which is only outwardly 
visible when full of feed, has a delicate white colouring interspersed 
with blue veins. The tail and long wing-feathers are black, the body 
and remaining feathers more or less white. 
9S7. Though there may be hundreds of Catliartea in full swing over 
a carcass they will immediately withdraw on the approach of the 
Vultur papa. Seated on the nearest trees, or, when these fail, upon 
the ground, they then watch with covetous and envious gaze until the 
tyrant has satisfied his hunger and retired, which no sooner takes place 
than they pounce again with wilder and enhanced greed upon their 
forsaken meal to swallow the remnants disdained by him. This respect 
