RAPTORES. 319 



The eagles, falcons, and the hawks capture their prey 

 on the wing by striking it with their enormously developed 

 talons, the most deadly weapons possessed by any birds, 

 and weapons to be feared by man. There are but eight 

 sorts of vultures in the western hemisphere, and only 

 two of these, the black and the turkey, are found in the 

 United States. The black buzzard is sometimes called the 

 carrion crow. The turkey buzzard is one of the land 

 scavengers, and one of the few birds whose services are 

 appreciated. Its life is protected by law in many of our 

 states, and the law is observed without protest; possibly 

 this is due partly to the fact that the flesh of the bird is 

 so strong and ill-flavored that it would never do for a 

 game bird. If the laws that do at present exist on the 

 statute books of the various states, looking toward the 

 partial protection of our game and insectivorous birds, 

 were enforced, crops would be safer, profits would be 

 larger, and men would be more nearly what their Creator 

 intended them to be. 



The eagles fall into two groups: those eating freshly 

 killed food, and those whose food is putrefying flesh, or 

 prey not captured in open flight. The first are called 

 noble birds and the second, ignoble. Among our land 

 birds, the eagles have remarkable powers of flight. Some 

 of the buzzards are close rivals, seeming to mount equally 

 high, and perhaps they remain longer on the wing. In 

 South America, the place of the eagles is taken by the 

 condors, whose natural home is the Andean range. 



