278 
BLACK VULTURE. 
It is really astonishing that the European naturalists should 
have so long overlooked the difference that there is between this 
species and the Turkey-buzzard, in their external conformation. 
Their heads are differently shaped ; their bills and nostrils are con- 
siderably unlike ; and the arrangement of the neck plumage is en- 
tirely dissimilar, as our figures will show. The Turkey-buzzard’s 
neck, along the oesophagus, as far as the breast bone, is bare of 
feathers, though this nakedness is concealed by the adjacent plu- 
mage; the same part in the Carrion-crow is completely clothed. 
The down of both species has the same cottony appearance. 
The drab colour on the primaries is not visible when the wing 
is spread naturally, consequently the marking on the wing of our 
figure is incorrect. 
In the month of December, 1815, a solitary individual of this 
species made its appearance in Philadelphia. This visiter, as may 
be presumed, occasioned not a little surprise. It was shot with an 
air rifle, while perched upon the chimney of a large house in Ches- 
nut street. This bird was put into my hands for examination, and 
from the appearance of its plumage, I had reason to conjecture that 
it had escaped from confinement. 
From Vieillot’s figure and description of the Black Vulture, 
we must conclude that he had never seen it, either alive, or in a 
recent state, otherwise he would not have committed the egregious 
error of representing the naked skin of the bill, head and neck, of 
a blood redy when these parts are of a dirty, scurfy black colour, re- 
sembling the skin of a dirty negro. 
