XIX 



THE TURKEY BUZZARD 



SOME day when you are lying on the ground looking 

 up into the clear blue of heaven, I am sure that you 

 will see a great silent bird floating overhead in wide cir- 

 cles without so much as a flutter of a wing. As you watch 

 he will sail up and down, back and forth, hither and yon- 

 der, occasionally tipping one wing upward and then the 

 other as he wishes to change his direction, always and 

 ever sailing, sailing, sailing. I think no bird I knew as 

 a child seemed so imreal and so wonderful as this bird. 

 Hardly a day passed, summer or winter, when at some time 

 in the day I could not see one or more of these great birds, 

 but always they were sailing so high in the air that I could 

 tell nothing about their appearance. Father and mother 

 told me they were turkey buzzards — "turkey'' because their 

 head was bare like the head of a turkey, and "buzzard'' be- 

 cause of fancied resemblance to a hawk. These buzzards 

 are a type of degenerate hawks. I say ^^degenerate" be- 

 cause they have lost the bold hunter spirit of the hawks 

 and have taken to the cowardly method of stealing or 

 sneaking up on anything that they may desire for food. 

 Occasionally they kill for food, but when they do it is 

 either some helpless half grown bird or some injured or 

 crippled animal. Seldom do they attack anything that has 



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