18 
TURKEY VULTURE. 
fiente, or Strunt-Vogel, is figured and described. The truth of 
Kolben’s story is doubtful j and we would express our regret, 
that enlightened naturalists should so readily lend an ear to the 
romances of travellers, who, to excite astonishment, freely give 
currency to every ridiculous tale, which the designing or the 
credulous impose upon them. 
The Turkey Vulture is two feet and a half in length, and six 
feet two inches in breadth; the bill, from the corner of the mouth, 
is almost two inches and a half long, of a dark horn colour, for 
somewhat more than an inch from the tip, the nostril a remark- 
ably wide slit or opening through it; the tongue is greatly con- 
cave, cartilaginous, and finely serrated on its edges; ears sub- 
cordate; eyes dark, in some specimens reddish hazel; wrinkled 
skin of the head and neck reddish ; the neck not so much car- 
uncled as that of the Black Vulture; from the hind-head to the 
neck feathers, the space is covered with down, of a sooty black 
colour; the fore part of the neck is bare as far as the breastbone, 
the skin on the lower part, or pouch, very much wrinkled, this 
naked skin is not discernible without removing the plumage 
which arches over it; the whole lower parts, lining of the wings, 
rump and tail-coverts, are of a sooty brown, the feathers of the 
belly and vent hairy; the plumage of the neck is large and tu- 
mid, and, with that of the back and shoulders, black; the scap- 
ulars and secondaries are black on their outer webs, skirted 
with tawny brown, the latter slightly tipped with white; pri- 
maries and their coverts plain brown, the former pointed, third 
primary the longest; coverts of the secondaries, and lesser cov- 
erts, tawny brown, centred with black, some of the feathers, 
at their extremities, slightly edged with white; the tail is twelve 
inches long, rounded, of a brownish black, and composed of 
twelve feathers, which are broad at their extremities; inside of 
wings and tail light ash; the wings reach to the end of the tail; 
the whole body and neck, beneath the plumage, are thickly 
clothed with a white down, which feels like cotton; the shafts 
of the primaries are yellowish white above, and those of the 
tail brown, both pure white below; the plumage of the neck. 
