TURKEY VULTURE 23 



bird is not lured to the bait, it may be either because its nostrils do 

 not inform it of the presence of food or because its eyes do inform it 

 of the deception. Another difficulty in interpreting the vulture's 

 behavior arises from its habit of reconnoitering before it begins a 

 meal. 



The vulture does not have to move quickly to catch its prey; 

 it has only to find out where it is, and to make sure that the body is 

 ready to be eaten — that it will not move. There is never need to 

 hurry, so the bird reconnoiters, examining from a distance with a 

 deliberation that allows time for the use of all its senses. Therefore, 

 experiments conducted on birds in the field, presumably in possession 

 of all their senses, do not suffice to show whether the bird is seeking 

 its food by one sense or another, or by a combination of senses, but 

 merely test the bird's general intelligence. 



P. J. Darlington, Jr. (1930) has made, from the viewpoint of 

 an entomologist, some very interesting and novel observations on 

 this subject, noting "a possible factor in the bird's behavior which 

 seems to have been overlooked." Here is his story : 



The first incident took place at the Harvard Tropical Laboratory on the 

 Soledad sugar estate near Cienfuegos, Cuba. In November, 1926, some dead 

 fish were put out near Harvard House to attract beetles, but were stolen by 

 Turkey Buzzards the first day. The bait had been hidden under fairly large 

 stones, and since it was placed beside a garden where people were frequently 

 moving about, there is no reason to suppose that the birds were attracted 

 by my actions. They may, indeed, have smelled the fish, but it seems just 

 as likely that they saw the insects which collected and which would have 

 given the set away to any intelligent human being. Near Santa Marta, 

 Colombia, in 1928, the same sort of thing happened, for when dead iguanas 

 were put out they were invariably discovered by Vultures, even when the 

 baiting was done in scrubby woods. The most rational explanation in this 

 case seemed to be that the birds had heard the carrion-drawn flies. 



The literature to date leaves the reader with the belief that the 

 vulture is a bird not very intelligent from the human standpoint, 

 but alert and keen to detect the presence of food by every sense 

 at its command. The problem is discussed further herein under 

 the black vulture. 



Voice. — For the most part, the vulture is a silent bird. Dr. 

 Pearson (1919) says: "Over the coveted carcass they flop and hiss 

 and even fight in a bloodless sort of way. Aside from this hissing 

 and an occasional low grunt, the birds appear to be voiceless." The 

 grunt he speaks of is a raucous growl or snarl, suggesting a note 

 of some of the larger herons. 



Field marks. — The turkey buzzard and the black vulture, large, 

 dark-colored birds with a soaring flight, resemble each other some- 

 what in the air. The buzzard, however, is dingy brown; its tail 

 is rounded at the tip and, carried nearly closed, projects beyond 



