corbeau

noun3

1. •
   The black vulture, Coragyps atratus.

   • The local corbeaux, black, heavy, hunched, hopped about the slopes of rubbish; the children of the shanty town ran between the traffic on the rubbish-strewn highway to get to the dump. — 2011
2. •
   A very dark shade of green, almost black.
3. •
   (historical) A man who carts away the dead plague victims.

   • By 8 August, it was necessary to conscript beggars to bury the dead because the corbeaux, special bearers of plague-striken corpses, no longer sufficed for the task. — 1972