THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 29 



ition. 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 

 Teally I could not bear to see the vulture deprived 

 of the most interesting feature in its physiognomy 

 with impunity. These are notable times for orni- 

 thology : one author gravely tells us that the water- 

 ousel walks on the bottom of streams ; another de- 

 scribes 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 absurd vulgar error, gives to the 

 bird the new name of night-swallow. 

 " In 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, 

 Humboldt, and Azara, I beg to inform him, that I 

 pronounced the Vultur Aura of Guiana to be not 

 gregarious, after the closest attention to its habits 



