6 
CATI-IARTES AURA. 
are not informed ; but it is probable that they extend 
their migrations to tbe Columbia, allured thither by the 
quantity of dead salmon which, at certain seasons, line 
the shores of that river. 
They are numerous in the West India islands, where 
they are said to be “ far inferior in size to those of North 
America.” * This leads us to the inquiry, n hether or 
no the present species has been confounded, by all the 
naturalists of Europe, with the black vulture, or car- 
rion crow, u’hich is so coniinou in the southern parts ot 
our continent. If not, why has tbe latter been totally 
overlooked in the numerous ornithologies and uomcn- 
clatures with wliich the world has boon favoured, n heu 
it is so cous|)icuous and remarkable, that no stranger 
visits South Carolina, Georgia, or tbe Spanish pro- 
vinces, but is immediatel}’' struck with tbe novelty of 
its appearance ¥ We can find no cause for the turkey 
buzzards of the islands -f- being smaller than onrs, and 
must conclude that the carrion crow, which is of Ic-S® 
size, has been mistiiken for the former. In the history 
which follows, we shall endeavour to make it evident 
that the species described by Ulloa, as being so nume- 
rous in South Amcri(!a, is no other than the black vul- 
ture. The ornithologists of Europe, not aware of the 
existence of a new species, have, witliout investigation, 
contented themselves with the opinion, that tbe bird 
called by the above numtioned traveller the gallinazo, 
was the vultur aura, the subject of our present history- 
This is the more inexcusable, as we expect in naturalists 
* Penn,int, Arctic ZmJmiy. 
f The vulture whirli Sir Ikuw ISloane luis figured and describi'd, 
and wliieh he says is comiuon in .bimaica, i.s midouliteilly the rw/wr 
aura, “ The bend, anil an iuch in the neck, are Imre, and without 
feathers, of a fli.-sh eoluur. covered with a thin membrane, like tlot* 
of turkeys, with wliieh tlie uuwt part of the bill is covered likewise J 
bill (below the membrane) more than an inch long, whitish at the 
f ioint ; tail broad, and nine inches long ; legs and teet three inehes 
ong ; it flies exactly like a kite, and prevs on nothing living; h’d 
when dead, it devours their eareassea, whence they are not moles- 
ted. " Sloane, Natural History, Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 294, folio. 
