112 WILD WIXGS 



The Turkey Buzzard is quite widely distributed. I have 

 often seen it away up in North Dakota, and now and then it 

 appears in Connecticut. One warm August day, in the latter 

 state, I drove eight miles to see a singular, unknown bird 

 which a farmer wrote me he had caught. It proved to be 

 a Turkey Buzzard, slightly wounded, which had now fully 

 recovered. Taking it home with me in a bo.x, I kept it in 

 my stable. It fed voraciously on livers and sounds, drink- 

 ing plenty of water, and made a fine subject to photograph. 

 But I could never teach it that it was not necessary for it 

 to offer me its dinner whenever I had occasion to handle 

 it. One very singular habit it had was to fill its lungs with 

 air, and then slowly expel it, keeping up a steady hiss, 

 like escaping steam, for about ten seconds. Another was to 

 stamp its focit angrily upon the floor several times in rapid 

 succession. 



Passing through Southern cities, I had seen from the car 

 windows flocks of buzzards frequenting dumjDing-grounds 

 and similar places in the environs. And when I had occasion 

 to stay for several days in one of them — Charleston it was — 

 I had the chance of my life to study buzzards. Fortunately, 

 too, it was mainly the Black Buzzard, the kind less familiar 

 to me. Right in the heart of the city, the great black fel- 

 lows visit the market. They sit in rows upon the adjoining 

 houses, or upon the market buildings themselves. Presently 

 one of the market-men, after serving a customer, throws the 

 scraps he has cut ol^ into the paved street. Instantly there is 

 the greatest imaginable flapping of wings and such a scurry- 

 ing. Great birds by the sc(^re tumble ]3ell-mell into the street, 

 and laying hold upon the choice morsels, a number at a time, 

 tug and haul, until the strongest gets the prize. Meanwhile 

 we stand within a few feet and laugh. Then they linger 

 around and wait to see if more will not be forthcoming, or 



