The Turkey Vulture 55 



finding some where none existed, and, after reiterated efforts, 

 all useless, he took flight, coursed around the field, when, sud- 

 denly turning and falling, I saw him kill a small garter snake 

 and swallow it in an instant. The vulture rose again, sailed 

 about and passed several times quite low over the stuffed deer 

 skin, as if loath to abandon so good looking a prey. Judge of 

 my feelings when I plainly saw that the vulture, which could 

 not discover through its extraordinary sense of smell that no 

 flesh, either fresh or putrid, existed about that skin, could at 

 a glance see a snake scarcely as large as a man's finger, alive, 

 and destitute of odor, hundreds of yards distant. I concluded 

 that, at all events, his ocular powers were much better than 

 his sense of smell." And this, I think, is the more generally 

 accepted view. A strong argument in favor of it is the fact 

 that often the vultures discover a carcass so soon after it is 

 dead too soon for it to give off any stench. It is a known 

 fact that, directly a camel or other beast of burden drops dead, 

 as a caravan to which it belongs is making its way across the 

 desert, vultures of one sort or another appear, often in con- 

 siderable numbers, though none had before been observed by 

 the ordinary traveler, and speedily devour the carcass over 

 which they are gathered together. 



At Buzzard's Roost these vultures nest in the snag of a 

 tree, and as of old, they roost in the midst of the woods not 

 on the great old tulip tree but on others nearby where that 

 stood. Since I have known the place, I have seldom gone there 

 during the season for them, but that I have found them sail- 

 ing in midair over the place. Again and again have I watched 

 them soaring to an immense height, and then sailing in great 

 circles without the flap of a wing, and seemingly without any 

 effort of the body, and in amazement I have wondered how 

 it was done. To me this is one of the most puzzling and most 

 beautiful sights in nature. One time when I was out there a 

 heavy thunder storm passed over the place. After it had 

 passed, it cleared away and the sun shone most beautifully. 

 Looking to the west from the cottage, I noticed a large dark 

 object on the projecting limb of a tree. A more careful obser- 

 vation developed the fact that it was a turkey vulture with 

 half outstretched wings. I concluded that he was drying him- 



