THE TUEKEY VULTURE 4Y 



Measurements. Length 30 inches, wing 22 inches, tail 11 inches. 



Range. From southern British Columbia, northern Minnesota 

 and southern New York, southward to southern South America. 

 Likely to be found anywhere in Iowa ; nesting in suitable localities. 

 Much less common than formerly. 



The Turkey Buzzard, as it is popularly called, seems formerly to 

 have been more abundant in Iowa than it now is. At a time when 

 the larger wild animals were here in numbers these birds feasted 

 upon the carcasses of Bison, Deer and Elk which succumbed to dis- 

 ease, accident or the prowess of the hunter, and which were left un- 

 buried upon the prairies. J. A. Allen has recorded that hundreds 

 of Turkey Vultures congregated at Panora in 1868, and mentions a 

 locality called "Buzzards Roost" in the southern part of Guthrie 

 county, so named because of the numbers of these birds which re- 

 sorted there. 



The keenness of vision of the Turkey Vulture is unexcelled, and 

 their custom of eating any decaying animal matter, not excepting the 

 dead of their own kind, has caused them to be protected as scaven- 

 gers in many states. 



They are remarkable in flight, soaring at varying levels in the at- 

 mosphere without apparent movement of the wings ; skimming the 

 tops of hills and dipping into the valleys between, no evident effort 

 being required to gain the hilltop after inspecting the valley. 



Though buzzards are not to be considered common, they are to be 

 noticed frequently in some parts of the state and occasionally are 

 found nesting. They are reported to reach Iowa early in April, and 

 by October most of them have moved southward. 



Captain Charles Bendire records that Professor Lynds Jones 

 found a nest of the Turkey Buzzard at Grinnell in a hollow stump 

 which had been used by them for many years. Mr. G. H. Berry 

 took an egg of this species from a large hollow stump near Fair- 

 fax, Linn county, May 20, 1886. A set of two eggs was taken from 

 a hollow tree at Spirit Lake by Mr. J. W. Preston. 



Dr. R. M. Anderson records that E. B. Webster found a pair 

 nesting near Upper Iowa river, and Morton E. Peck says they 

 nested frequently in Black Hawk county. 



Mr. George Burge, Professor Charles Keyes and the writer have 

 found their eggs and young at the Palisades on Cedar river near 

 Mount Vernon, where they occupied the small caves and ledges in 

 the more or less vertical limestone cliffs. 



