TRAMPS THROUGH THE GULF STATES I 



491 



are to be taken, by some 

 doubting Thomases among 

 our ornithologists, to settle, 

 through various experi- 

 ments, this interesting point 

 for all times. In times long 

 gone by, some ingenious 

 tests were made to solve 

 this problem, but for the 

 lack of space they cannot 

 well be touched upon in the 

 present connection. 



As will be noted from an 

 examination of Figure 5, 

 the young of the Turkey 

 Vulture or Buzzard has a 

 downy, white plumage, 

 which it loses at the first 

 moult, when the black 

 plumage of the adult ap- 

 pears. In your excursions 

 through the woods of the 

 Gulf States, you will find, 

 at certain seasons of the 

 year, the Turkey Vultures 

 breeding; but you must 

 not confuse the bird with 

 the other vultures found in 



that part of the country, 



namely, the Black Vulture 



or "Carrion Crow" (not 

 our common crow) a very 



different species. The 



Turkey Buzzard generally 



lays two eggs, depositing 



them on the bare ground 



in the forest, most often at 



the foot of some big tree, 



or, occasionally, close to 



the trunk of some fallen 



tree or log. As will be seen 



in Figure 4, they are very 



beautiful objects, being of 



a buffy or greenish white, 



blotched and spotted with 



gray, or purplish gray and 



various shades of dark 



brown and umber. For the 



purpose of photography, 



the specimen here figured 



was kindly loaned the 



writer by Mr. Edward J. 



Court, of Washington, 



while Mr. William Palmer, 



of- the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, furnished the living specimen of the 



young bird. (Fig. 5). Some twenty-eight or thirty years 



ago, the writer's youngest son slightly wounded an old 



bird of this species, and from that specimen the portrait 



shown in Figure 4 was obtained. In so far as man's inter- 



THE TURKEY VULTURE AND ITS EGG 

 Figure 4. There are three species of vultures found in the bird fauna of 

 the United States. This is the turkey vulture-a bird widely distributed 

 over the country. The skin of the head is red and this, taken in con- 

 nection with the general form of the upper body, is .responsible for the 

 nam ng of this rapacious individual after our domestic turkey. 



ests are concerned, Turkey 

 Buzzards are quite harm- 

 less, as they never prey 

 upon living animals, such 

 as lambs and young calves. 

 Indeed, they are extremely 

 useful as scavengers ; and, 

 in those parts of the coun- 

 try where they are numer- 

 ous which is the case any- 

 where south of New Jersey 

 they will, with marked 

 rapidity, consume the flesh 

 of a dead animal as large 

 as a horse, if left where 

 they can reach it. The 

 Black Vulture of the South 

 possesses the same habits, 

 and the species is even 

 more numerous. 



Should you start your 

 exploratory trip in south- 

 ern Florida and work your 

 way in the direction of 

 Texas, you may have oc- 

 casion to observe some of 

 the vandalism now being 

 done by tourists and recent 

 settlers in that part of the 

 State. This is especially 

 noticeable since the roads 

 have been completed, in 

 that automobiles may pass 

 in many directions through 

 the Everglades and else- 

 where. Adults as well as 

 boys carry 22 calibre rifles 

 of great efficiency and 

 plenty of ammunition, and 

 as they pass through the 

 country, birds and mam- 

 mals of every size and kind 

 are shot at and killed in 

 the most wanton manner 

 imaginable. Not satisfied 

 with such destruction, 

 masses of flowers are ruth- 

 lessly gathered frequently 

 roots and all only to be 

 thrown out of the cars as 

 they begin to wither in the 

 sun. Such practices have 

 now been in vogue for 

 some time, and as a con- 

 sequence, many of our most interesting and beautiful 

 Floridian species of birds have been reduced in num- 

 bers to the very point of extinction, while no end of 

 lovely flowers, that formerly were abundant along the 

 roadsides, are at this time more than rare, or even, in 



