THE TURKEY BUZZARD 129 



hours animals that evidently were so sick they could not 

 live long, watching for the end to come. 



These birds are wise in their own way, because they 

 soon learn what it means to see a man start out with a 

 gun. Strange to say, most States protect them simply be- 

 cause they are scavengers; and their flesh is so filled with 

 poisons caused by their food that no living creature will 

 eat them unless driven to it by extreme hunger. For 

 this reason people seldom shoot buzzards. I have known 

 these birds to follow a hunter for hours, hoping to see where 

 he secreted any game he might kill; in case anything was 

 hidden, or escaped after being mortally wounded, the buz- 

 zards would eat it in his absence. 



In the Southern part of the United States buzzards are 

 exceedingly numerous. In Texas and in Mississippi and 

 Louisiana I have seen them by the thousands, especially 

 on the outskirts of cities and about slaughter pens. The 

 bird itself is rather remarkable in many ways. While it 

 weighs only six and a half or seven pounds it has a spread 

 of wings of at least six feet. The entire body is covered 

 with long loose feathers which make it appear much larger 

 than it really is. 



In winter these birds like to gather on the south side 

 of a bluff or in trees on the southern border of a large 

 body of timber where they can sun themselves. I have 

 found them in the woods of Tennessee in flocks of sev- 

 eral scores sitting sometimes ten or fifteen on a single limb, 

 lazily sunning themselves, occasionally yawning and 

 stretching their wings, but never once have I seen one of 

 them preening his feathers. The fact is that at close 

 range they always look dirty and disheveled. I am sure 

 the buzzards are as filthy in their habits as they are in their 



