46 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 
61. CATHARTES AURA SEPTENTRIONALIS (Wied). 
TURKEY VULTURE. 
“Turkey Buzzard.” 
“Common. Resident. Breeds. It is generally not be- 
lieved that this vulture has the sense of smell acute, but 
from actual observation I think it must be guided by 
smell as well as by sight in finding its prey. During the 
summer past in July a small chicken, about the size of a 
Bob White, died, and was thrown out of the yard under 
some nines so dense that no eye could detect so small an 
object from above. About four days after this chicken 
had laid there a turkey vulture perched upon a fence near 
by and extended his neck in different directions, as if 
“feeling for the scent; ascertaining the course of the 
odor, he flew toward the spot, lighted, passed some yards 
beyond the dead chicken, as a dog that seeks his prey by 
his olfactories, and then discovering his mistake, he turn- 
ed and went directly to the object of his search. Mr. C. 
S. Brimley, this summer, removed the anal glands of a 
little striped skunk, and threw them about a hundred 
vards from my door. Several days after this tidbit was 
exposed, the piercing sight or the keen scent of a turkey 
vulture discovered its location and the vulture perched 
or the fence above it; a few minutes afterward he was 
joined by two others of his species. There they remained 
for some moments, till one of the number flew down and 
svallowed the coveted morsel. It seemed to me that the 
sense of smell guided these vultures in this instance; and 
no one, who observes them closely, can escape the conclu- 
sion that turkey vultures depend much upon the sense of 
smell to find their prey.” (1890d). 
62. CATHARISTA URUBU (Vieillot). 
BLACK VULTURE. 
“Carrion Crow.” 
“Common. Resident. Breeds.” (1890d). 
“Saw black vulture feeding her young by regurgitation, 
as a pigeon.” (Original notes. Sept. 1, 1890). 
“Found nest of black vulture in a hollow of a tulip 
tree (Lyriodendron tulipifera). The two eggs lay on 
