In North- Wf^t C<nni<l<i. 69 



CHAPTER XL 



LINE 12th. I was up early this morning and blew 

 a quantity of the eggs collected yesterday. After 

 breakfast we set out for the hills north of Rush 

 Lake, and John carried along with him a spade to 

 enable us to dig for some burrowing owl's eggs. A 

 pair of turkey vultures were seen flying around in 

 circles, with motionless wings, high in the air, and we 

 sat down for some time and gazed upwards at their beautiful 

 aerial evolutions. When the ornithologist sees these red- 

 headed vultures on the wing for the first time, performing all 

 their movements with the utmost grace and elegance, he can- 

 not help exclaiming, " What magnificent birds ! " but after he 

 becomes acquainted with their disgusting habits when feeding, 

 he can never look upon them with the same admiration as be- 

 fore. John informed me that turkey vultures were more 

 numerous years ago, when he was a boy, and when the buffalo 

 were plentiful on the prairie, and that after a buffalo had 

 been killed and the best parts cut up and carried off for food, 

 the refuse was left for the wolves and vultures. At first only 

 two or three vultures would appear on the scene, but before 

 many hours had elapsed their numbers would increase to 

 twenty or thirty, here they would fight over the carcass, and 

 eat to such excess and become so crammed that they were 

 unable to fly. They are great cowards when captured, and 

 never attempt to defend themselves as haw r ks or owls do 

 when winged ; the latter lie on their backs and strike out 

 with their talons, and often keep a dog at bay for a consider- 

 able time, but the turkey vulture merely hangs down its head 

 in the most abject manner, and if it has been recently eating 

 anything it will disgorge the contents of its stomach at its 

 captor's feet. The turkey vulture is mute, and their only 

 noise is a kind of hiss. It is only when flying these birds 



