BLACK VULTURE. 
23 
Vultures. As soon as the dogs departed, the Vultures crowded 
in such numbers, that I counted at one time thirty-seven on 
and around the carcass, with several within; so that scarcely an 
inch of it was visible. Sometimes one would come out with a 
large piece of the entrails, which in a moment was surrounded by 
several others, who tore it in fragments, and it soon disappeared. 
They kept up the hissing occasionally. Some of them having 
their whole legs and heads covered with blood, presented a 
most savage aspect. Still as the dogs advanced I would order 
them away, which seemed to gratify the Vultures; and one 
would pursue another to within a foot or two of the spot where I 
was sitting. Sometimes I observed them stretching their necks 
along the ground, as if to press the food downwards.” 
The Carrion-crow is seldom found, on the Atlantic, to the 
northward of Newbern, North Carolina, but inhabits, as far as 
we can ascertain, the whole southern continent. Don Ulloa, in 
taking notice of the birds of Carthagena, gives an account of a 
Vulture, which we shall quote, in order to establish the opinion, 
advanced in the preceding history, that it is the present spe- 
cies. We shall afterwards subjoin other testimony in confirma- 
tion of this opinion. With respect to the marvellous tale of their 
attacking the cattle in the pastures, it is too improbable to merit 
a serious refutation; and it is to be regretted that Vieillot should 
have perpetuated this slander, which is so absurd, that we won- 
der how it could have escaped his animadversion. 
“ It would be too great an undertaking,” says Ulloa, ‘‘to de- 
scribe all the extraordinary birds that inhabit this country; but 
I cannot refrain from taking notice of that to which they give 
the name of Gallinazo, from the resemblance it has to the Tur- 
key-hen. This bird is of the size of the Pea-hen, but its head 
and neck are somewhat larger. From the crop to the base of 
the bill there are no feathers; and the skin, which is of a brown- 
ish black colour, is wrinkled and rough, and covered with 
small warts and tubercles. The plumage of the bird is also 
black. The bill is well proportioned, strong, and a little hook- 
ed. These birds are familiar in Carthagena, the tops of the 
