136 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN 



a mile from the entrance. They may have been 

 carried by an owl or ring-tail, or may have been washed 

 in from the entrance of the cave. 



Turkey buzzards at times seem more abundant than 

 an arid region ought to require for scavengers, but the 

 cliffs and canyon walls afford such irresistible nesting 

 sites that they gather here in unusual numbers to breed. 

 None was seen before March 24, but during the first 

 half of April they became fairly numerous, often in 

 gatherings of one hundred or more. They would fly 

 over the canyons, or on cold windy evenings would 

 settle on the rocks or ground or in low trees in some spot 

 sheltered from the wind and where they would catch 

 the first warm rays of the morning sun. They would 

 not leave the roosting spot until well warmed, and at 

 eight or nine o'clock might be seen sitting with wide- 

 spread wings catching all the rays of warmth they 

 could reach. Sometimes two or three hundred were 

 seen together on the roosting grounds. White downy 

 young were found in the nest before the first of May, 

 while others were not yet breeding. A dry winter and 

 scanty forage for stock insured them a food supply from 

 dead cattle and burros in the canyons, and once I 

 found about a dozen feasting on a dead colt, killed and 

 partly eaten by a mountain lion. Unlovely birds as 

 they are, their usefulness as scavengers is generally 

 acknowledged, and their graceful soaring has long been 

 the admiration and envy of would-be human aviators. 

 Of the diurnal birds of prey there are golden eagles 

 and many hawks, — western red-tails, Swainson, fer- 

 ruginous rough-legged, & few marsh hawks, occasionally 



