WINGED LIFE 



179 



walk with than ducks and geese. The talons 

 are too much developed for walking. When 

 they rise from the ground they do it heavily 

 and with quick flapping wings. Not until 

 they are fairly started in the upper air do 

 they show what wonderful wing-power they 

 possess. 



The common brown-black vulture or turkey 

 buzzard is the type of all the wheelers and sail- 

 ers. The " soaring eagle " of poetry is some- 

 thing of a goose beside him. For the wings of 

 the vulture bear him through wind, sun, and 

 heat, hour after hour, without a pause. To 

 see him circling as he hunts down a mountain 

 range a hundred miles or more, one might 

 think that the abnormal breast-muscles never 

 grew weary. He goes over every foot of the 

 ground with his eyes and at the same time 

 watches every other vulture in the sky. Let 

 one of his fellows stop circling and drop earth- 

 ward on a long incline, and immediately he is 

 followed by all the black crew. They know 

 instantly that something has been discovered. 

 But often the hunt is in vain, and then for 

 whole days at a time those motionless wings 

 bear their burden apparently without fatigue. 

 With no food perhaps for a fortnight and 



Birds of the 

 air. 



The 



brown-black 



vulture. 



The vulture 

 hunting. 



