188 SOME TENNESSEE BIRD NOTES. 



tion. In fact, I was inclined so to explain 

 it till I noticed that Mr. Brewster had 

 chronicled a similar state of things in what 

 is substantially the same piece of country. 

 Writing of western North Carolina, he 

 says : ^ " The general scarcity — one may 

 almost say absence — of hawks in this re- 

 gion during the breeding season is simply 

 unaccountable. Small birds and mammals, 

 lizards, snakes, and other animals upon 

 which the various species subsist are every- 

 where numerous, the country is wild and 

 heavily forested, and, in short, all the neces- 

 sary conditions of environment seem to be 

 fulfilled." Certainly, so far as my ingenuity 

 goes, the mystery is " unaccountable ; " but 

 of course, like every other mystery, it would 

 open quickly enough if we could find the 

 key. 



Turkey vultures were moderately nu- 

 merous, — much less abundant than in 

 Florida, — and twice I saw a single black 

 vulture, recognizable, almost as far as it 

 could be seen (but I do not mean at a first 

 glance, nor without due precaution against 

 foreshortened effects), by its docked tail. 

 The Auk, vol. iii. p. 103. 



