112 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



after a bird on the wing. It has not the courage or dash 

 to venture within the dooryard, unless in a secluded place. 

 I know the farmer generally looks upon them as an enemy, 

 but after a careful study of their habits, and an examina- 

 tion of many of their stomachs, I have reached the conclu- 

 sion that they are far more beneficial than injurious, in 

 fact, one of his best friends. In flight they are slow, but 

 steady and strong, with a regular beat of the wings ; they 

 also delight to sail in the air, where they float lightly, and 

 with scarcely an apparent motion of the wings, ofter cir- 

 cling to a great height; and during the insect season, 

 while thus sailing, often fill their craws with grasshoppers, 

 that during the after part of the day also enjoy a sail in 

 the air. 



Their nests are placed in the forks of the branches of the 

 tallest trees on the timbered bottom lands ; a bulky struct- 

 ure, made of sticks, and lined sparingly with grass, leaves 

 and a few feathers. Eggs two to four, usually two or three, 

 2.30x1.84; bluish white thinly and irregularly spotted 

 and blotched with various shades of light to dark brown ; 

 in form, elliptical to oval. 



XXXV. TURKEY VULTURE. 



Cathartes aura (LiNN.). 



Summer resident; abundant; occasionally seen in win- 

 ter. Begin laying the last of April. 



HABITAT. Nearly the whole of temperate and tropical 

 America, from New England, Manitoba, British Columbia 

 and Washington southward, including the West Indies, to 

 Falkland Islands and Patagonia. 



A young female, in the " Goss Ornithological Collec- 



