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Notes and Photographs of the Development of a Buzzard. 



By D. W. Dennis and W. O. Petry. 



Throughout southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana the turkey 

 buzzard, Cathartes aura, is a common bird, but the nests are seldom 

 found. Accordingly we were glad to learn in April, 1905, that during 

 each of the preceding four summers a pair of these birds had nested 

 only a few miles away. We expected that the nest would be again used, 

 and on the 22d of April visited the place; we found that two eggs had 

 been laid and that incubation was in progress. The bird on the nest 

 hissed when approached, and would not leave the nest until forcibly dis- 

 turbed; she then ran out and flew away, but soared about overhead until 

 we went away, when she almost immediately returned to the nest. 



This nesting site is about four miles east of New Paris, Ohio; it is 

 near a small creek and in a very hilly country. It is at least a half mile 

 from any house or highway, on the edge of a rather open woodland. The 

 nest itself was in a hollow sycamore log (Fig. 1) nearly five feet in diam- 

 eter at the butt; the cavity extends back about eight feet, where it has 

 a diameter of about two feet, and there it terminates abruptly. This 

 cavity contained a quantity of dirt and rotten wood, but nothing from 

 which to make a nest had been carried in. A hollow had been scratched 

 in the debris at the extreme end of the cavity and the eggs laid in it. 

 They were rather conical in shape, a little larger than a hen's eggs, and 

 were white, splotched with brown. 



On May 17th both eggs hatched. The young birds were very helpless; 

 they could not stand in an upright position for about three weeks. That 

 part of the head and neck usually bare in buzzards and a line down the 

 center of the throat and breast were bare. The bill was very large and 

 its tip was sharply hooked. After the young were hatched the old birds 

 were never seeu about the nest, though they were frequently seen "ooz- 

 ing" around overhead. 



We were unable to learn when the young were fed. On May 27th we 

 went with a party of students to examine and photograph the birds and 



