V. auricularis, Lath. &c. ?luriculated Vulture. Neck naked ; skin of the ears elongated ; general plumage brown. This species takes its name from the remarkable projection of the skin round the ears, and which is also continued to some little distance down the neck on each side. It is a very large bird, being three feet high, and measuring ten feet from tip to tip' of the outstretched wings. Its general colour is brown ; but the throat is black, and covered with coarse hairs. Native of the southern parts of Africa and of the East Indies ; and, contrary to the nature of the fiercer birds of prey, is of a gregarious disposition, being often seen in large flocks, and sitting in great numbers about the caverns of rocky mountains, in which its breeds. The nests, too, are often placed very near one another, each generally containing two,'and sometimes three eggs, of a white colour, and not disagreeable to the taste. During incubation, the male watches before the entrance of the cavern in which the female sits, and may be regarded as a certain indication of the nest : but this last is usually of very difficult access. " However," says Levaillant, " I have sometimes, with the aid of my Hottentots, surmounted all difficulties, and often risked my life, that I might exa mine the eggs of this bird, whose retreat is a sink of dis gusting pollution, and contaminated by an insupportable odour. It is the more dangerous to approach these ob scure recesses, because their entrance is beset with filth, and this always in a liquid state, by reason of the moisture produced by the water which incessantly oozes from the rocks, so that,by sliding on the points of these rocks, one runs the hazard of tumbling over hideous precipices, on the top of which the oricous preferably establish their abodes." At sunrise, flocks of these birds may be seen perched at the entry of their gloomy habitation, and sometimes stucl cling at intervals an entire mountain range. As an j in stance of their voracity, the author whom we have just quoted mentions, that having wounded one of them, when busily engaged on the carcass of a hippopotamus, the oricou still tore off morsels of its prey in its attempts to escape, and encumbered with six pounds and a half of meat in its stomach. Embarrassed with this quantity of food, and detained by its wound and its gluttony, it allowed the traveller and his attendants time to come up with it, and to assail it with the butt end of their muskets. For a long time the bird defended itself with singular intrepidity, and seemed even to make some impression on the barrels of the fowling-pieces. It is only, however, in such cases of emergency that it displays real courage ; for, notwith standing its great strength and dimensions, it is naturally indolent and sluggish, seldom attacking the weakest ani mals, provided it can gorge itself with their spoils, and the fragments of corruption.
V. papa, Lin. ke. King of the Vultures. Of a whitish with naked variegated head and neck; nos trils-furnished with a loose orange-coloured caruncle, and the neck with a grey ruff. One of the most elegant of the tribe, and well figured by Edwards. The extreme length of the body does not exceed twenty-nine inches and a half, and it is not thicker than that of the lien turkey. It is a native of the plains, and other hot regions of South Ame rica, and, it is also said, of the West Indies ; but it is not met with in the East Indies, as they who make a traffic of showing birds would induce us to believe. It lives on rats, lizards, snakes, carrion, and all sorts of excrementi tious matters, exhaling a most offensive odour, which the stuffed skin has been known to retain for upwards of twenty years. The feathers, fantastically arranged and painted, are used by some of the American Indians as a sacred ensign both of peace and war. When extensive plains have been set on fire, either by lightning, or by the natives for the purpose of rousing the game, and immense tracts of dry herbage have been consumed, the ashes have scarcely cooled, when this vulture alights on them in quest of scorched snakes and other vermin, which are then so intent on feeding, and apparently so fearless of danger, as to be easily dispatched.
V. aura, Lin. Et.c. American, or Carrion Vulture, Tur key Buzzard, Carrion Crow of Jamaica, &c. The speci fic designation is from the Brasilian ouroua, so that the expression, Regina aurarum, or Queen of the Gales, ap plied to this species by some of the elder ornithologists, proceeds on a misconception. The American vulture is blackish, with purple and green reflections ; the head and neck are red, naked, papillous, and wrinkled. It occurs throughout the continent of America ; but is more com mon in the warmer parts of it. In Europe it haunts the Grison Alps, Silesia, Poland, and some other countries, but not Great Britain. It is also met with in Asia. Its length is about four feet and a half, and its average weight between four and five pounds.
By some navigators, this species has been mistaken at a little distance for the turkey, as happened to one of the officers engaged in the expedition round the world, under Woodes Rogers. In the island of Lobos immense num bers of them were seen ; and, highly delighted with the prospect of dainty fare after a long and tedious voyage, the officer would not even wait till the boat could put him ashore, but, with his gun in his hand, leapt overboard, and swam to land. Coming near to a large assemblage of the buds, he fired among them ; but, on seizing his game, he was sadly disappointed to find that they were not turkeys, and that their stench was almost insupportable. Though much addicted to carrion, they will also kill lambs ; and snakes are an usual article of their food. Flocks of them may be observed roosting on tall dead pines, or cypress trees, and with their wings spread open in the morning for several hours together. In other regions they are seen in flocks of forty or fifty, perched on the cocoa trees; for they range themselves in files, to sleep together, like poultry ; and such is their indolence, that they go to roost long before sunset, and awake not till far on in the morn ing. In some regions of the torrid zone they haunt the towns in great multitudes, as Carthagena, for example, where they perch on the roofs of the houses, or even stalk along the streets, and are of infinite service to the inhabit ants, as they devour all manner of filth and refuse. When food fails them in the cities, they seek for it among the cattle of the adjoining pastures; for if an animal is unfor tunate enough to have a sore on its hack, they alight on it without ceremony, and attack the part affected, nor quit their hold until they have completed the creature's de struction. In snme parts of South America, where the hunters kill beasts merely for the skins, vast numbers of these vultures follow in their train ; and, were it not for their assiduous voracity, the many flayed carcasses expos ed to the air would speedily generate disease. We need not wonder, therefore, that the Spanish and Portuguese dealers in hides should protect the carrion vultures, and allow them to feed with their dogs. These birds likewise contribute to repress the multiplication of alligators, by preying on their eggs the moment that they are consign ed to the sand, and left by the parent. Their sloth, foul ness, and voracity, are such as almost to exceed belief. Whenever they alight on a carcass which they can tear at their ease, they leave the bones as if they had been scrap ed with a knife, and they often continue feeding till they are incapable of flight. On the pressure of danger, how ever, they have been known to rid themselves of a burden ed stomach by disgorging.