92 ('. H. Merriam — Birds of Connecticut. 



ern .classiticatioii of the Animal Kingdom is not sufficiently plastic to 

 admit of grouj^ing together chickens, pigs, and lambs, under the 

 head of " Re})tiles," along with "lizards and frogs," and the like, and 

 since the word of so careful and conscientious an observer as Mr. 

 Linsley is unimpeachable, we are forced to admit tliat these "harm- 

 less animals" do occasionally visit the farm-yard with "malice afore- 

 thought," and that a young fowl, safely lodged in the otherwise 

 empty stomach, may not prove an altogether distasteful article, ex- 

 erting, perchance, as soothing an effect over the sluggish intellect of 

 one of these indolent scavengers as the most delicious morsel of pu- 

 trescent carrion. Indeed, Audubon says of it : " they often watch the 

 young kid, the lamb, and the pig, issuing from the mother's womb, 

 and attack it with direful success." "Any flesh that they can at 

 once tear with their very powerful bill in pieces, is swallowed, no 

 matter how fresh ; .... but it frequently happens that these birds 

 are forced to wait until the hide of the prey gives way to the bill."* 

 Mr. Grinnell tells me that one was shot at the mouth of the Hous- 

 atonic River, Conn., in June, 1875, by C. Merwin, of Milford Point. 

 Turkey IJuzzards have been observed at Saybrook, Conn., by Mr. J. 

 N. Clark) recorded by Purdie ;f two were taken in Massachusetts,^ 

 and one even strayed as far to the north as Calais, Maine, where it 

 was captured by Mr. G. A. Boardman (recorded by Prof. A. E. Ver- 

 rill).§ Dr. Wood tells me that one was seen, feeding on carrion, 

 near East Windsor, Conn., only three years ago (IH'74). The Rev. 

 J. Howard Hand writes me as follows, concerning the occurrence of 

 Turkey Buzzards in Connecticut : "I took one s})ecimen at Cromwell, 

 Conn., Sept. 23d, 1S74; also one at Westbrook, Conn., Oct. 10th, 

 1875, and again eight sijeciniens on Oct. 18th (two days afterwards). 

 They are not common." Dr. Wm. O. Ayres writes me that he took 

 one at New Haven in 1853. 



Along our eastern coast it does not breed farther north than South- 

 ern New Jersey; but in the West its range is much more extensive, 

 its northern limit being "about 53° in the region of the Saskatchewan, 

 where it arrives in June,"|| and was obtained by Sir John Richardson. 

 Dr. Coues saw it at Fort Randall, Dakota, lat. 43° 11', and I have 



* Appendix to Wilson's American Ornithology, vol. iv, pp. 254 and 258, ISIU. 

 f Am. Nat., vol. vii, No. 11, p. 693, Nov., 1873. 



\ Samuel's Descriptive Catalogue of the Birds of Massachusetts, p. .3, 18G4. [From 

 Agr. Mass., App., p. xviii, 1863.] 



§ Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat Hist., vol. ix, p. 122, Sept., 1862. 

 II Coues' Birds of the Northwest, p. 380, 1874. 



