48 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
ularly the case with an old veteran who hopped upon 
one foot, (having by some accident lost the other,) and 
had regularly appeared round the shambles to claim the 
bounty of the butchers for about 20 years. In the coun- 
try, where I have surprised them feeding in the woods, 
they appeared rather shy and timorous, watching my 
movements alertly like hawks ; and every now and then 
one or two of them, as they sat in the high boughs of a 
neighbouring oak, communicated to the rest, as I slowly 
approached, a low bark of alarm or waugJi , something 
like the suppressed growl of a puppy, at which the whole 
flock by degrees deserted the dead hog upon which they 
happened to be feeding. Sometimes they will collect 
together about one carcase to the number of 250 and up- 
wards ; and the object, whatever it may be, is soon 
robed in living mourning, scarcely any thing being visi- 
ible but a dense mass of these sable scavengers, who 
may often be seen jealously contending with each other, 
both in and out of the carcase, defiled with blood and 
filth, holding on with their feet, hissing and clawing each 
other, or tearing off morsels so as to fill their throats 
nearly to choaking, and occasionally joined by growling 
dogs ; the whole presenting one of the most savage and 
disgusting scenes in nature, and truly worthy the infer- 
nal bird of Prometheus. 
In Carthagena, however, according to Ulloa, this spe- 
cies is highly serviceable to man, in the destruction it 
makes of the eggs of the Alligator or Cayman, the latter 
being one of the most formidable and destructive ani- 
mals of South America. The Vulture watches the Alli- 
gator as she lays her eggs in the sand, and, immediately, 
on her disappearance, darts upon the deposit, and joined, 
as usual, by numerous comrades, soon extinguishes these 
nests of reptiles. 
