or brush, and often choose for security the most intricate thicket of briars, 

 so that the nest is often sheltered and concealed by projecting weeds and grass. 

 Sometimes a mere tussock of grass or accidental pile of brush is chosen. It 

 is made of dry sedge grass and a few leaves loosely wound together and sup- 

 ])orted by the weeds or twigs where it rests ; the lining consists entirely of 

 fine bent grass. 



The eggi^, about five in number, are white, inclined to flesh color with touches 

 of specks and small spreading blotches, and sometimes with a few lines of two 

 or three shades of reddish brown, chiefly disposed toward the greater end. The 

 young leave the nest about the middle of June, and a second brood is sometimes 

 raised in the course of the season. The parents and young now rove about in 

 restless prying troops and take to the most secluded marshes where they pass 

 their time in comparative security till the arrival of that period of scarcity 

 which warns them to depart. As early as the close of July the lively song of 

 the male ceases to be heard, and the whole party now forage in silence. 



Turkey Buzzard {Cathartes aura septentrionalis) 



Length : About 30 inches. The naked head and neck and glossy black 

 ])lumage are distinctive. 



Range : Extends from southwestern Canada, northern Minnesota, southern 

 New York and south into northern Mexico and Lower California. 



This buzzard displays superb powers of flight which even the eagle cannot 

 surpass, and no small part of its time is spent in the upper air, describing great 

 circles on motionless wings as if for the mere pleasure of flight. Let another 

 l)uzzard, however, discover a carcass, and the movements of our aeronaut as 

 he hastens to the feast are at once noted by his next neighbor, and his by a third, 

 till the carrion feeders of a wide territory are assembled. Sight and not smell, 

 then, is depended on by the buzzard to guide him to his food. Though of great 

 strength and provided with a formidable bill, the buzzard rarely, if ever, attacks 

 living animals, unless they are disabled, but depends upon death to provide for 

 his wants. No doubt his ability to fast is as great as his capacity for gorging 

 liimself when occasion offers, and he must often go for days without food. 

 As a scavenger the buzzard does good service and no sound reason exists for 

 destroying him, notwithstanding the fact that occasionally the bird may be 

 instrumental in spreading hog cholera by transporting the germs on his feet 

 and bill. This disease, however, may be, and no doubt often is, transmitted 

 by the feet of so many other birds, especially the English sparrow, and of so 

 many mammals, especially rats, and even on the footwear of man himself as 

 to lead to the belief that if every buzzard in the hog cholera districts were to 

 be sacrificed no perceptible diminution of the disease would follow. The ])ird 

 should continue to enjoy the protection which is at present accorded it in nearly 

 every state of the Union. 



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