200 
WANDERINGS IN 
THIRD 
JOURNEY. 
Other 
species of 
Vulture. 
Sails in a 
canoe 
down to 
the Esse- 
quibo. 
The common black, short, square-tailed vulture, 
is gregarious; but the aura vulture is not so : for, 
though you may see fifteen or twenty of them feeding 
on the dead vermin in a cane-field, after the trash 
has been set fire to, still, if you have paid attention 
to their arrival, you will have observed that they 
came singly and retired singly ; and thus their being 
altogether in the same field was merely accidental, 
and caused by each one smelling the effluvia as lie 
was soaring through the sky to look out for food. 
I have watched twenty come into a cane-field ; they 
arrived one by one, and from different parts of the 
heavens. Hence we may conclude, that though the 
other species of vulture are gregarious, the aura 
vulture is not. 
If you dissect a vulture that has just been feeding 
on carrion, you must expect that your olfactory 
nerves will be somewhat offended with the rank 
effluvia from his craw ; just as they would be were 
you to dissect a citizen after the Lord Mayor’s 
dinner. If, on the contrary, the vulture be empty 
at the time you commence the operation, there will 
be no offensive smell, but a strong scent of musk. 
I had long wished to examine the native haunts of 
the cayman; but as the river Demerara did not 
afford a specimen of the large kind, I was obliged 
to go to the river Essequibo to look for one. 
I got the canoe ready, and went down in it to 
George-town; where, having put in the necessary 
articles for the expedition, not forgetting a couple of 
large sliark-hooks, with chains attached to them, and 
a coil of strong new rope, I hoisted a little sail, 
