104 STORIES OF BIED LIFE 



ing wood or dead leaves, without the least attempt at nest 

 building, the two beautiful spotted and blotched eggs are 

 laid. In those regions where the country is underlaid with 

 limestone many small natural caves are found. In these, 

 often ten or twenty feet below the surface of the earth, 

 this bird may frequently be found brooding her eggs. 



The young are at first covered with white down. This 

 has doubtless given rise to the familiar expression, ' ' Every 

 old buzzard thinks her young ones are the whitest." If 

 surprised on her nest the buzzard will make no effort to 

 defend it. She will simply lower her head in the most sub- 

 dued manner, and not infrequently will humbly lay at 

 your feet a portion of her last meal. The odor of this dis- 

 gorged peace offering is not so attractive to the average 

 man as it would doubtless be to another vulture, and the 

 intruder at this juncture usually beats a hasty retreat. I 

 have, with the aid of a short stick, removed eggs from 

 beneath a setting vulture without her showing the least 

 resistance. 



The principal diet of the turkey vulture is carrion, which 

 it will seek out and eat wherever found. I once saw one 

 feeding on the carcass of an alligator floating in a lake. 

 It is sometimes known to attack weak and helpless animals. 



One day I came upon an indignant farmer busily en- 

 gaged in th i^o wing clubs at a vulture which he claimed he 



