56 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



TURKEY VULTURE 

 Cathartes aura septentrionalis IVied 



A, O. U. Number 325 See Color Plate 43 



Other Names. — Carrion Crow; Turkey Buzzard. 



Description. — Length. 2'/2 feet; spread of wings, 6 

 feet. Tail, long, and rounded ; wings, when folded, 

 reaching to or beyond the tip of tail; head and 

 upper part of neck, entirely bare or with only a few 

 bristles, and with skin deeply corrugated. Adults : 

 Head and upper neck of a reddish tinge and some 

 shades of blue and white; neck and upper parts, 

 blackish glossed with green or purple ; beneath, 

 dull brownish-black ; feathers above, broadly edged 

 with dull-grayish brown ; secondaries edged with gray ; 

 shafts of wing- and tail-feathers, pale brown or yel- 

 lowish white; bill, dull whitish; iris, brown; feet, 

 flesh-colored. 



Nest and Eggs. — Eccs : Commonly 2, sometimes i, 

 and very rarely 3 ; laid, from February to June, in a 

 cave, a cavity between rocks, in a hollow log, or on the 

 ground ; white or creamy, variously spotted with laven- 

 der or purplish brown blotches. 



Distribution. — From southern Lower California 

 and northern Mexico north to southern British Colum- 

 bia, Saskatchewan, western Manitoba, northern Min- 

 nesota, southern Ontario, western and southern New 

 York, and New Jersey; casual in Wisconsin, Michigan, 

 northern Ontario, and New Brunswick ; winters 

 throughout most of its regular range in the East, but 

 further west retires to California, Nebraska, and the 

 Ohio valley. 



The Turkey Vulture is ugly to the last degree, 

 except in flight, but it is an invaluable health- 

 protector in warm latitudes, where it exists on all 

 forms of carrion, being guided to its food by a 

 sense of sight — not smell. What it lacks in 

 beauty and grace afoot it compensates for a-wing. 



Its circling form, on motionless, widely out- 

 stretched pinions, is seldom absent from the 

 skyscape of its habitat as it soars in great circles, 

 scanning the ground below. For hours at a time, 

 in fair weather, it will remain on the wing. 



There can be little question that its eyesight is 



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HALF-GROWN TURKEY VULTURE 

 He is ugly to the last degree except in flight 



