20 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
amicably, and nothing but harmony subsists between them. 
The wonder is still the greater, as both are extremely rapa- 
cious, and both lean anil bony to a very great degree : pro- 
bably having no great plenty even oi' the wretched food on 
which they subsist. 
In America, they lead a life somewhat similar. Wherever 
the hunters, who there only pursue beasts for the skins, are 
found to go, these birds are seen to pursue them. They still 
keep hovering at a little distance; and when they see the 
beasts Hayed and abandoned, they call out to each other, 
pour down upon the carcass, and in an instant, pick its bones 
as bare and clean as if they had been scraped by a knife. 
The sloth, the filth, and wretchedness of these birds, 
almost exceed credibility. In the Brazils, where they are 
found in great abundance, when they light upon a carcass, 
which they have liberty to tear at their ease, they so gorge 
themselves that they are unable to fly; but keep hopping 
along when they are pursued. At all" times, they are a bird 
ol slow flight, and unable readily to raise themselves from 
the ground; but when they have overfed, they are then ut- 
terly helpless ; but they soon get rid of their burthen ; for 
they have a method of vomiting up what they have eaten, 
and then they fly off with greater facility. 
It is pleasant to be a spectator of the" hostilities between 
animals that are thus hateful or noxious. Of all creatures, 
the two most at enmity is the vulture of Brazil, and the cro- 
codile. The female of this terrible amphibious creature, 
which in the rivers of that part of the world grows to the 
size of twenty-seven feet, lays its eggs, to the number of one 
to two hundred, in the sands, on the side of the river, where 
they are hatched by the heat of the climate. For this pur- 
pose, she takes every precaution to hide from all other ani- 
mals the place where she deposits her burthen : in the mean 
time, a number ol vultures sit, silent and unseen, in the 
branches of some neighbouring forest, and view the croco- 
dile’s operations, vv ith the pleasing expectation of succeeding 
plunder. They jvatiently wait till the crocodile has laid the 
whole number of her eggs, till she has covered them care- 
fully with the sand, and until she is retired from them to a 
convenient distance. Then, altogether, encouraging each 
other with cries, they pour down upon the nest” hook up 
the sand in a moment, lay the eggs bare, and devour the 
whole brood without remorse. Wretched as is the flesh of 
these animals, yet men, perhaps, when pressed by hunger, 
have been tempted to taste it. Nothing can be more lean, 
stringy, nauseous, and unsavory. Every attempt has 
been made to render it palatable, but in vain. These 
