THE VULTUKES 



103 



common ; for instance, their food is in general of the same 

 kind, and their nesting and roosting habits are similar. 



While engaged in searching for food turkey vultures 

 hunt singly or in small companies. At almost any time of 

 day one or more may be seen soaring about, at one moment 

 low over the gardens and fields, and again sailing hundreds 

 of yards in the air above the: earth. A southern landscape 

 would hardly be complete without a turkey vulture some- 

 where in the back- 

 ground. When 

 storms come they 

 will at times rise 

 rapidly in the air 

 until, on motionless 

 wings, they float in 

 the blue ether far 

 above the raging of 

 the tempest. At 

 other times they can be seen after a shower perched on 

 some tree for an hour or more with wings expanded, drying 

 their feathers in the sunshine. 



Although the turkey vulture is a bird of the sky, it seeks 

 a lowly place to rear its young. In the decayed butt of 

 some large tree, or in the interior of a hollow one prone in 

 the forest, the vulture finds an abode. There on the decay- 



