THE TURKEY VULTURE. 



Qj 



URKEY BUZZARD is the 

 familiar name applied to this 

 bird, on account of his remark- 

 able resemblance to our com- 

 mon Turkey. This is the only tespect 

 however, in which they are alike. It 

 inhabits the United States and British 

 Provinces from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, south through Central and 

 most of South America. Every farmer 

 knows it to be an industrious scaven- 

 ger, devouring at all times the putrid 

 or decomposing flesh of carcasses. 

 They are found in flocks, not only 

 flying and feeding in company, but 

 resorting to the same spot to roost ; 

 nesting also in communities ; deposit- 

 ing their eggs on the ground, on rocks, 

 or in hollow logs and stumps, usual!}- 

 in thick woods or in a sycamore grove, 

 in the bend or fork of a stream. The 

 nest is frequently built in a tree, or in 

 the cavity of a sycamore stump, though 

 a favorite place for depositing the 

 eggs is a little depression under a small 

 bush or overhanging rock on a steep 

 hillside. 



Renowned naturalists have long 

 argued that the Vulture does not have 

 an extraordinary power of smell, but, 

 according to ]\Ir. Davie, an excellent 

 authority, it has been proven by the 

 most satisfactory experiments that the 

 Turkey Buzzard does possess a keen 

 sense of smell by which it can dis- 

 tinguish the odor of flesh at a great 

 distance. 



The flight of the Turkey Vulture is 

 truly beautiful, and no landscape with 

 its patches of green woods and grassy 

 fields, is perfect without its dignified 

 figure high in the air, moving round in 

 circles, steady, graceful and easy, and 

 apparently without effort. " It sails," 

 says Dr. Brewer, ''with a steady, even 

 motion, with wings just above the 

 horizontal position, with their tips 



slightlv raised, rises from the ground 

 with a single bound, gives a few flaps 

 of the wings, and then proceeds with 

 its peculiar soaring flight, rising very 

 high in the air." 



The Vulture pictured in the accom- 

 panying plate was obtained between the 

 Brazos river and Matagorda bay. With 

 it was found the Black Vulture, both 

 nesting upon the ground. As the 

 nearest trees were thirty or forty miles 

 distant these Vultures were always 

 found in this situation. The birds 

 selected an open spot beneath a heavy 

 growth of bushes, placing the eggs 

 upon the bare ground. The old bird 

 when approached would not attempt 

 to leave the nest, and in the case of 

 the young bird in the plate, the female 

 to protect it from harm, promptly dis- 

 gorged the putrid contents of h^r 

 stomach, which was so offensive that 

 the intruder had to close his nostrils 

 with one hand while he reached for 

 the young bird with the other. 



The Turkey Vulture is a very silent 

 bird, only uttering a hiss of defiance 

 or warning to its neighbors when feed- 

 ing, or a low gutteral croak of alarm 

 when flying low overhead. 



The services of the Vultures as scav- 

 engers in removing offal render them 

 valuable, and almost a necessity in 

 southern cities. If an animal is killed 

 and left exposed to view, the bird is 

 sure to find out the spot in a very short 

 time, and to make its appearance as if 

 called by some magic spell from the 

 empty air. 



"Never stoops the soaring Vulture 

 On his quarry in the desert, 

 On the sick or wounded bison, 

 But another Vulture, watching, 

 From his high aerial lookout. 

 Sees the downward plunge and follows; 

 And a third pursues the second. 

 Coming from the invisible ether, 

 First a speck, and then a Vulture, 

 Till the air is dark with pinions." 



75 



