. 



C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 91 



In 1634, William Wood wrote : " The Eagles of the Countrey be of 

 two sorts, one like the Eagles that be in England, the other is some- 

 thing bigger, with a great white head and white tayle : these bee 

 commonly called Gripes ; these prey upon Duckes and Geese, and 

 such Fish as are cast upon the Sea-shore. And although an Eagle be 

 counted King of that feathered regiment, yet is there a certaine blacke 

 Hawke that beates him; so that he is constrayned to soare so high, 

 till heate expell his adversary."* 



Family, CATHARTIDJE. 



1 70. Cathartes aura (Linne) Illiger. Turkey Buzzard. 



A rare visitor from the South, at present, although once " not un- 

 common "f according to Linsley, who further states: "I have known 

 it in Connecticut from a child, having at that period counted twenty in 

 a flock in Northford in the month of August." "At the South, where 

 they abound, it is seldom one attacks domestic poultry ; but many 

 years since I saw in Northford, in this State, a splendid male Turkey 

 Buzzard pounce down upon a chicken about three-quarters grown, 

 and within about three rods of where I was standing with two other 

 persons. As he turned his eye upon us, still standing upon the 

 chicken, he appeared so much alarmed as to be unable to rise ; we all 

 ran upon him, and when within a few feet of him he rose, just clear- 

 ing our heads, and dropping the chicken at our feet, he hurried off."]; 

 This fact is particularly interesting, since they are commonly believed 

 to feed exclusively on carrion. Nuttall heard that they were "ac- 

 cused, at times, of attacking young pigs and lambs, beginning their 

 assault by picking out the eyes." But that he did not believe it is 

 evident, for he goes on to say : " Mr. Waterton, however, while at 

 Demerara, watched them for hours together amidst reptiles of all 

 descriptions, but they never made any attack upon them. He even 

 killed lizards and frogs arid put them in their way, but they did/ not 

 appear to notice them till they had attained the putrid scent. So 

 that a more harmless animal, living at all upon flesh, is not in exist- 

 ence, than the Turkey Vulture." Nevertheless, since our own mod- 



* New England's Prospect, p. 30, 1 634. 



f Regarding its former abundance, Mr. J. N. Clark writes me that an old hunter 1 

 told him "that they used to be very common" about the mouth of the Connecticut, 

 where "he had shot a good many, but not recently." 



\ Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, vol. xliv, No. 2, p. 250, April, 1843. 



Nuttall's Manual of Ornithology, p. 45, 1832. 



