86 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



Ozarks and the southeast. The first spring arrivals appear at 

 very irregular times, seldom before the middle of March, most 

 frequently in the second half of that month; about once in four 

 years the first Doves are not seen before some day in the first 

 half of April, then soon followed by the bulk, which is to be ex- 

 pected between April 10 and 25, when they become generally 

 distributed and begin nesting. Small troops may be seen flying 

 northward as late as early May. Where not molested they lose 

 much of their timidity and build nests in close proximity to 

 human habitations. From July to October, though not forming 

 real flocks, Doves are found in large aggregations on the wheat 

 stubble and in corn-fields, gleaning the waste grain and ripening 

 grass and weed seeds. After the middle of October they become 

 scarce, but small numbers continue in northern Missouri into, 

 and sometimes through, November, and in southern Missouri 

 through December. As the law sanctions their destruction till 

 the first of January-, very few get a chance to prove their endur- 

 ance of our more severe winter weather of January and February, 

 when snow and sleet drive them to the farmyard for food and 

 shelter and place them at the mercy of the farmer. 



Order RAPTORES. Birds of Prey. 

 Suborder Sarcorliainplii. American ^"ultures. 

 Family Cathartidae. American A\iltures. 

 *325. Cathartes aura (Linn.). Turkey Vulture. 



Vidtur aura. RhinogryphiLs aura. Turkey Buzzard. Red-headed Vulture. 



Geog. Dist. — From Patagonia and the Falkland Islands to 

 Assiniboia in the interior, to British Columbia on the Pacific 

 and to Sandy Hook on the Atlantic side, rarely to New England 

 and the British Provinces. Winters from southern California, 

 Ohio River and Chesapeake Bay southward. 



The Turkey Vulture or Buzzard, as it is commonly called, 

 is the only one of all our larger birds which has not diminished 

 in numbers during the past twent3^-five years. It is also one 

 of the few birds that can be seen in any of the 114 counties of 

 Missouri on any day during six months of the year from April 

 to October. It can hardly be called a permanent resident, 

 not even in the most southern part of the state. Some think 



