THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 19 



black with carrion crows ; many sat on the tops of sheds, fences, and houses within 

 sight ; sixty or eiglity on the opposite side of a small river. I counted at one time 

 two hundred and thirty-seven, and I believe there were more, besides several in the air, 

 over my head and at a distance. I ventured cautiously within thirty yards of the carcass, 

 where three or four dogs and twenty or thirty Vultures were busy tearing and devouring. 



Seeing them take no notice, I ventured nearer, till I M'as within ten yards, and 

 sat down on the bank. Still they paid little attention to me. The dogs, being sometimes 

 accidentally flapped l:>y the wings of the Vultures, would growl and snap at them, which 

 would occasion them to spring up for a moment, but they inimexliately gathered in 

 again. I remarked the Vultures frequently attack each other, fighting with their 

 claws or heels, striking, like a cock, with open wings, and fixing their claws into each 

 other's heads. The females, and I believe the males likewise, made a hissing sound 

 with open mouth, exactly resembling that produced by thrusting a red-hot poker into 

 water ; and frequently a snuffling, like a dog clearing his nostrils, as I suppose they were 

 theirs. On observing that they did not heed me, I stole so close that my feet were witliin 

 one yard of the horse's legs, and again sat down. They all slid aloof a few feet ; 

 but seeing me quiet, they soon returned as before. As they were often disturbed by the 

 dogs, I ordered the latter home ; my voice gave no alarm to the Vultures. 



As soon as the dogs departed, the Vultures crowded in such numbers that I counted 

 at one time thirty-seven on and around the carcass, with several within ; so that scarcely 

 an inch of it was visible. Sometimes one would come out with a large j)iece of the 

 intestines, which in a moment was surrounded by several others, who tore it to fragments, 

 and it soon disappeared. They kept up the hissing occasionally. Some of them, 

 having their legs and heads covered with blood, presented a most savage aspect. Still as 

 the dogs advanced, I would order them away, which seemed to gratify the Vultures ; 

 and one would pursue another to within a foot or two of the spot where I was 

 sitting. Sometimes I observed them stretching their necks along the ground, as if 

 to press the food downwards." 



The Zopilote is rather a familiar bird, and may often be seen marching about 

 the streets in the towns and villages of the Southern States, where it might be easily 

 mistaken for a domestic turkey by a new arriver in the country. By the inhabitants it 

 is popularly called the carrion crow, a confusion of nomenclature which has sometimes 

 led to strange misapprehensions of corvine habits. As the birds, although personally 

 disliked, are so useful to the community, they are protected by common consent, and 

 permitted to roam the streets or prowl among the houses at will. 



Another species of the genus Catharista is the Turkey Buzzard, more rightly 

 termed the Carrion Vulture. Its name of Turkey Buzzard is earned from the strange 

 resemblance which a Carrion Vulture bears to a turkey, as it walks slowly and with 

 a dignified air, stretching its long bare neck, and exhibiting the fleshy appendages which 

 bear some likeness to the wattles of the turkey. Indeed, instances are not wanting, 

 where recent visitors to the country have actually shot these birds, thinking that they had 

 succeeded in killing a veritable edible turkey. This bird is chiefly found in North America, 

 but is also an inhaliitant of Jamaica, where it is pop)ular]y known as the John crow. 



According to Waterton and Darwin, the Turkey Buzzard is not so sociable a bird as 

 the zopilote ; for although a little flock of twenty or thirty may be seen together in a 

 corn-field where the refuse stubble has been burned, engaged in feeding on the dead 

 mice, lizards, moles, and other creatures which have perished in the conflagTation, each 

 bird comes separately and departs separately, no two individuals having any connexion 

 with each other. 



When gorged with food, an event which always takes place whenever there is the 

 least op)portunity, the Turkey Buzzard leaves reluctantly tlie scene of the banquet, 

 and gaining with some difficulty a branch of a neighbouring tree, sits heavy and listless, 

 its hi ad sunk upon its breast, and its wings hanging half open, as if the bird were 

 too lazy even to keep tliose members closed. The object of this curious attitude seems to be, 

 that the bird may gain as much air as possible, for these feathered creatures are singularly 



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