THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 99 
tion. I would stake my life upon it, that not only 
the fifty vultures would be at the carcass next morn- 
ing, but also that every vulture in the adjacent forest 
would manage to get there in time to partake of the 
repast. 
Here I will stop, fearing that I have already drawn 
too largely on the reader’s patience; but really I 
could not bear to see the vulture deprived of the 
most interesting feature in its physionomy with im- 
punity. These are notable times for ornithology : 
one author gravely tells us that the water-ousel walks 
on the bottom of streams ; another describes an eagle 
as lubricating its plumage from an oil-gland ; a third 
renews in print the absurdity that the rook loses the 
feathers at the base of the bill by seeking in the 
earth for its food; while a fourth, lamenting that the 
old name, Caprimulgus, serves to propagate an ab- 
surd vulgar error, gives to the bird the new name of 
night-swallow. 
*‘ Tn nova fert animus.” 
THE MEANS BY WHICH THE TURKEY BUZ- 
ZARD TRACES ITS FOOD. 
In answer to the remark of Mr. Percival Hunter, 
in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. iv. p. 83., 
that my account of the habits of the Vultur Aura 
is at variance with the observations of Wilson, Hum- 
boldt, and Azara, I beg to inform him, that I pro- 
nounced the Vultur Aura of Guiana to be not gre- 
