THE TURKEY BUZZARD 531 



country. In California we have a giant buzzard that looks 

 much like a turkey, even having white bars on the wings; 

 but our common turkey buzzard is a dull brown color 

 without beauty of any kind. Should you ever get near a 

 turkey buzzard you will have no trouble in recognizing 

 him by his bald red head and neck. This head and neck 

 looks very much like the head and neck of a common tur- 

 key. The only birds that you could mistake for the Com- 

 mon buzzard, either in flight or at any other time, is the 

 giant black buzzard or carrion crow and one or two Of the 

 hawks. In flight all of these birds soar very much alike. 

 I learned to recognize the difference when a child because 

 all of the hawks find it necessary to flap their wings oc- 

 casionally. In fact, I never saw a hawk soar more than 

 a few minutes without flapping his wings, but buzzards will 

 often fly for an hour without doing so. No one need 

 have any difficulty distinguishing buzzards from the car- 

 rion crow because these latter birds have a square instead 

 of a rounded tail, and the head is black. 



