THE AMERICAN VULTURES. 



All day long we roam, we roam. 



My shadow fleet and I ; 

 One searches all the land and sea, 



And one the trackless sky ; 

 But when the taint of death ascends 



My airy flight to greet, 

 As friends around the festal board, 



We meet ! We meet ! We meet ! 



— Harry Stillwell Edwards, "The Vulture." 



While the greater number of birds are 

 attractive on account of the beauty of 

 their phtmage or because of their habits, 

 a few are repulsive. To the latter class 

 belong the Vultures. Though their 

 habits are such that they cause a feeling 

 of repugnance, they are withal to be 

 placed among the very useful birds. They 

 are nature's scavengers. Unlike the more 

 noble birds of prey — the eagles, hawks 

 and owls, which, as a rule, scorn carrion 

 and hunt living prey — the Vultures feed 

 chiefly upon decaying animal substance. 

 This habit, however, does not seem to be 

 due to a preference for this kind of food, 

 but rather it is due to the fact that they 

 have not the ability to kill game for 

 themselves, and that their bills and claws 

 are not fitted for tearing the tough skins 

 of many living animals. Observations 

 seem to indicate that they will eat fresh 

 meat first, whenever it is obtainable. It 

 is said that they will sometimes attack 

 a living animal, provided it is disabled 

 and injured so severely that its flesh and 

 blood are exposed. However, Turkey 

 Buzzards have been known to attack and 

 kill young pigs and lambs because of 

 hunger due to a lack of carrion food. 



The American Vultures differ widely 

 from those of the Old World. They are 

 more cowardly and indolent, exhibiting 

 very little of the spirit of the true Vul- 

 tures, which is more like that of the typi- 

 cal birds of prey. They differ also in 

 their anatomical characteristics. In their 

 search for food, the American Vultures 

 are chiefly guided by their sense of sight, 

 rather than by the sense of smell. Audu- 

 bon, desiring to ascertain whether it was 



the sense of smell or that of sight which 

 guided the Vultures to carrion, made 

 many carefully planned experiments. He 

 had noted that these birds quickly dis- 

 cover the dead body of an animal, and 

 that at the time of death, not one of the 

 birds was in sight. His investigations 

 led to the opinion that the Vultures 

 depended on the sense of sight. It has 

 also been shown that when putrid flesh 

 is so covered that it is not visible, though 

 the odor may escape, the birds do not find 

 it. If, however, bits of flesh are exposed 

 on the cover, the Vultures gather and eat 

 them while still failing to discover the 

 hidden food. Regarding the discussion 

 at the time when Audubon presented the 

 results of his investigation, Dr. Coues has 

 said : 'Tt is somewhat to be wondered 

 that no person of an ingenious and in- 

 quiring turn advanced a theory why 

 Vultures were deprived of the sense of 

 smell ; reasoning that if their olfactories 

 were acute they could not bring them- 

 selves to eat carrion, and that, moreover, 

 they would be continually unhappy in the 

 noxious atmosphere enamating from 

 their own bodies. In short, that a merci- 

 ful Creator had so arranged that they 

 might not smell themselves!" 



Even the Israelitic law-giver showed 

 his disapproval of the unclean habits of 

 the Vultures. "Of all clean birds ye shall 

 eat. But these are they of which ye shall 

 not eat : The eagle and the ossifrage, 

 and the osprey, and the glede, and the 

 kite, and the Vulture after his kind." 

 This prohibition would seem almost un- 

 necessary, for the plumage and flesh of 

 these birds becomes sattirated with the 



