A Vulture Census 75 



was like a May day. The leaves were fast coming out on 

 the shrubbery. Red Maples were in full blossom. Frog's 

 and Toads were singing. Violets were blooming everywhere 

 in the woods and in all the gardens Narcissus and Daffodils, 

 May haw and Dogwood trees were white with flowers, and 

 many other shrubs that were entirely new to me. Birds were 

 singing everywhere — Mockingbirds. Brown Thrashers, Car- 

 dinals, Tufted Tits and Carolina Wrens. And the bright 

 varnished leaves of the big Magnolia trees and the grey- 

 green of the Live Oaks, and everywhere the grey moss hang- 

 ing. Peach and Pear tiees were in full bloom and the mos- 

 quitoes were also there by the hundreds and only too anx- 

 ious to annoy one. I should have liked to 'have spent a few 

 days more at Mandeville, but I received word that I must be 

 back in Chicago by February 27th, and it was not without a 

 feeling of regret that I left the sunlit southern woods and 

 turned my face northward, but still the thought cheered me 

 that I would reach Chicago ahead of the birds and would 

 have the novelty of watching the spring arrive twice this 

 year. 



A VULTURE CENSUS AND SOME NOTES. 



BY JOHN WILLIAMS, ST. MARKS, FLA. 

 " One might almost be willing to be a Buzzard to fly like that! " * 



Familiarity may breed contempt in some instances, but 1 

 have ever found that an intimate acquaintance with Nature 

 in any aspect, at any season, in any clime, invariably leads to 

 fresh wonderment and renewed kinship and esteem. Vul- 

 tures are not commonly objects for adoration, I verily be- 

 lieve, and yet they have many attributes to be admired. 



Majestic Ease would seem to be an appropriate expres- 

 sion for the wide-encircling, smooth and graceful evolutions of 

 Cathartes aura scptcntrionalis as he serenely defies the temp- 

 est on unbending wings, calmly floating far on high or again 

 * Bradford Torrey, in "A Florida Sketch Book." 



