214 Birds Every Child Should Know 



Because it is so helpful in ridding the earth of 

 decaying matter, the law and the Southern 

 people, white and coloured, protect the vulture. 

 Its usefulness is more easily seen and understood 

 than that of many smaller birds of greater value 

 which, alas ! are a target for every gunner. Con- 

 sequently, it is perhaps the commonest bird in 

 the South, and tame enough for the merest tyro 

 in bird lore to learn that it is about two and 

 a half feet long, with a wing spread of fully six 

 feet; that its head and neck are bare and red 

 like a turkey's, and that its body is covered 

 with dusky feathers edged with brown — an 

 ungainly, unlovely creature out of its element, 

 the air. Another sable scavenger, the black 

 vulture or carrion crow, of similar habits, but 

 with a more southerly range, is common in the 

 Gulf States. 



Because it feeds on carrion that not even a 

 goat grudges it, and is too lazy and cowardly to 

 pick a quarrel, the buzzard has no enemies. 

 Although classed among birds of prey, it does 

 not frighten the smallest chick in the poultry 

 yard when it flops down beside it. With beak 

 and claws capable of gashing painful wounds, 

 it never uses them for defence, but resorts to 

 the disgusting trick of throwing up the contents 

 of its stomach over any creature that comes too 

 near. When a colony of the ever-sociable 

 buzzards are nesting, you may be very sure 



